Directed by Charlie Kaufman
My rating: BOMB
IMDb
(Starz)
The first and hour and a half of this depressing movie shows Philip Seymour Hoffman experiencing the most agonizing middle age crisis ever put on film. His body is falling apart and we witness graphic details of his bowel habits, skin rashes and gum problems. At one point he has a ridiculously over-acted seizure in which he manages to call 911 and yell "I'm sick, I'm sick!". He is married to a selfish, tattooed artist who is having a lesbian affair. His young daughter is precocious and annoying. After they abandon him and move to Berlin, he gets a boat load of money to produce a play. He falls in love with the "box office girl", another annoying, quirky character in a film full of quirky characters, but she rejects him when he starts crying during sex. He remarries a much younger, totally incompatible woman instead, leading to more misery. However, it is revealed that everything we have seen is a play populated by characters from the movie whose roles are interchangeable, acting out events in their real life, or maybe the other way around. It's a confusing, unnecessary and pretentious gimmick, and when paired with its relentlessly downbeat, depressing content, you end up with one of the most unwatchable films in years.
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