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The Age of Commercialism

People are voting emotionally.

As Good As It Gets

This is a gorgeous movie made by a gorgeous spirit.

Nothing happens in this film. NOTHING!! I thought watching paint dry was the most boring activity on Earth, then i saw this horrible film! Its just over 2 hours of watching some average guy, doing an average job and living an average life. Then in the last 10 seconds some natural disaster is supposed to take place. That's it! It drags on, and on and the viewer is hoping for something to happen, but it doesn't. It has no story, it has no meaning or message. This movie offers nothing! It just is!This "film" easily falls under the category as cruel and unusual punishment, and this type of garbage should be banned or come with a huge warning label!This is seriously a horrible, horrible "film"

Didn't know what to expect from the odd synopsis but decided to take a chance, turned out I should instead have taken shelter from this drizzle. Looking back at some of the 'promo' type reviews that give a false hope of gaining any 'entertainment' value from this 'sleeper' (and sleep-it-did-induce) all these reviews end up by suggesting, that perhaps some folk are quite easily pleased. There are just too many overlong, simple scenes, that are padded out maddeningly to breaking point - suggesting the script may have initially been intended for an hour TV show. There were some moments when it looked like becoming a reasonably decent study of the onset of mental illness (with even a long family history put forth) but this goes nowhere - even the addition of a deaf child in the family looks like adding a touch of curious interest but, after endlessly super-slow situations have been dragged out before us - all we are offered in the finish is a foolish end-of-the-world-dream cop out. Don't waste your valuable time on simple writing that doesn't seem to know what genre it wants to be or have the clarity to deliver its message concisely.Some good performances, with stylish images, are again wasted in another Sundance disappointment.

I stumbled across this movie by just scrolling while on a streaming website and am I ever glad I stopped and clicked 'play'. Too often I end up spoiling movies and TV shows for myself by coming here and reading up on them, but this time I didn't. Not surprisingly I was thrilled I did it that way. From the very minute this movie started I was swept up in the building suspense. The man who played the dad was fantastic. His facial expressions were spot on. You could literally see inside his mind as the emotions worked their way through his brain. The mom was great too. I could feel her fear of her husband as his growing paranoia (or was it?) took over their lives. This is the kind of movie I would rave about to anyone who would listen, and even though I just watched it this afternoon, I want to watch it again right away. I think there are many pieces I missed. Great movie!

Curtis is a middle class American, not living a lavish lifestyle but getting by. He has a loving family that is determined to look at the bright side even with his daughter's deafness; they are making progress through therapy, and have a cochlear implant surgery lined up. But his life begins to deteriorate when he begins having visions of a raging impending storm, dreams of an apocalyptic nightmare. These consume his life. Nichols retains his distance and vagueness; we don't fully have an answer to why these visions inflict Curtis, nor are we sure of what is reality in those tense last few scenes. This allows audiences a myriad of interpretations and suggestions of subtext. But it is also a double edged sword because be too vague and it allows validation of crockpot and unsubstantial theories, or cries of anti- climatic. Then again, it is all personal subjective opinion. Nichols doesn't delve too deeply into that end; it is the slow burn of the suspense and thrill of Curtis' demise that this film will be remembered for. Michael Shannon is impeccable - his ability to feign comfort, his wayward glances, his mumbled and stuttered speech. It is agonising for the audience as his family and work relations break down, even as the staccato visions and dreams plague him. Nichols' pacing augments this apprehension. This quite dread climaxes in that Lions Club Dinner scene where he explodes in a maniacal rage and forewarning. We've had plenty of these outbursts before, but Shannon makes it terrifying and almost believable. I wonder if Noah was ever faced with such social ramifications. The reaction of Sam (Jessica Chastain) is a touch that I enjoyed, where most films would have the wife and daughter slowly backing away in horror and recognition of the madness. Chastain will be overshadowed, but her performance is magnificently subtle; in her relief of the good health insurance news, in her panic and fear as Curtis has an apparent seizure, in her steadfast willingness to stick by him even as he blows their financial hopes and embarrasses himself in public. Her trembling hands provide more comfort than he thinks he deserves. She is stronger than CUrtis, and realises the need for her to let him open the door for himself. This is a film about mental illness, but also about the financial anxiety of modern America. We cringe but watch on intently as Curtis blows money on gas masks, construction equipment and a crude storm shelter, but we sympathise with how his life has been taken over. We see the clear ineptitude of the mental health services and how unequiped they are to deal with Curtis' situation, as he jumps through hoops and payments. So the ending may be a powerful statement about the paranoia and confusion that mental illness may bring; the opening of the door as a admittance of a problem, and the impending storm as a metaphoric challenge for the young family. This interpretation is just one of many, but fits with the increasingly dread and hostility as Curtis alienates everyone around him. The initial aural parallels foreshadow this and use sound bridges elegantly; the dirty brown rain shares the morning shower of a weary Curtis, and the construction drill to Sam's sewing machine. Credit must be given to the score by Wingo, which personifies dread and fear in its frenzied strings, but backs away during moments of intense emotion before building for that inevitable explosion (or lack of it). This is most evident in the storm shelter scene and that teary-eyed plea from Chastain to Curtis to take his dilemma into his own hands. The editing is tight but revealing. No better scene illustrates this than the final one, where we are aware of what is to come long before the money shot, through close-ups of terror and disbelief, of innocent sand castles hurriedly abandoned, of a murky yet very clear reflection in the window of a gigantic and monstrous storm approaching. Nichols' use of sparse yet foreboding special effects of oily rain and the possessed flight of birds makes the ending that much more intense; he is able to milk the emotional dread as much as possible until he finally cuts to the wide shot. But in this storm, they stand together.