A very good movie

Last year, I discovered that Curtis Hanson had retired because of Alzheimers. It sounds rather tragic that his career ended up this way. Hanson was actually quite a late bloomer as he had his biggest success with ‘L.A. Confidential’ rather late in his career. 3 years later, he came up with this follow-up which was barely noticed by the audience, even though it received some stellar reviews. Personally, I really liked this flick and even though it might not have been as epic as ‘L.A. Confidential’, it was almost as good and it definitely deserved more love. First of all, there was a very solid cast (Michael Douglas, Tobey Maguire, Frances McDormand, Robert Downey Jr., Katie Holmes) and they all delivered some solid performances, especially Douglas who was universally praised at the time. Personally, I always had a weak spot for this kind of characters, those guys (they are always guys, aren’t they?) who are or who were once brilliant but still can’t help being some terrible losers and, as a result, their life always seems to be a mess. In this case, it is even more enjoyable because Michael Douglas always plays the exact opposite, some shallow but terribly charismatic and successful SOBs and it was a just a blast to see him play around with his image. To conclude, even though it might not be a masterpiece, I think it is still a really solid drama and it is definitely worth a look, especially if you like the genre.

8/10