A good movie

Nowadays, this movie is pretty much forgotten but when it was released, it gained mostly positive reviews. It was the 2nd (and so far) last directing effort by Todd Field, an obscure actor who happened to be a terrific director. Personally, I thought this movie was really good. Indeed, the actors (Kate Winslet, Patrick Wilson, Jennifer Connelly, Jackie Earle Haley, Noah Emmerich) were all really good and, above all, I thought the story was quite spellbinding. I can understand that some people were not so found of this story but I really liked it. Indeed, most of those characters were really unlikeable, like obviously the pedophile played by Jackie Earle Haley but also the adultrous couple played by Kate Winslet and Patrick Wilson was also just some whining and above all terribly egoistical persons. I mean, they both have kids but there is not a single moment during the whole thing when I felt that they really cared for their offsprings. Basically, the only thing that mattered for them was their immediate short-term pleasure, that's it. I know, when you read this, I don't make it sound really appealing but I thought that those characters were really flawed, messed up and therefore really interesting, way more than the usual stereotypes you get in your typical hollywood productions. Also, the way they handled the pedophilia was also rather subtle and really interesting as well. To conclude, even though it is definitely an acquired taste, I thought it was really good and I think it is worth a look.

8/10