Kevin Spacey and Annette Bening star as a couple whose marriage is disintegrating. Spacey plays an advertising executive whose midlife crisis manifests itself in an obsession with the best friend of his teenage daughter.
It’s compelling and disturbing stuff that ponders suburban ennui and the meaning of life.
It’s slow and the thin plot doesn’t warrant the extended 139-minute running time. Costner proves the general rule that actors cannot direct (the only exceptions being Clint Eastwood and Woody Allen). He has little sense of moving things along or building character. Instead, it’s like a fifth-rate homage to Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid.
The one saving grace is Annette Bening as the doctor’s sister.
It works as drama and romance, with flashes of comedy. It’s also gently political and makes you wish that politics was that simple and idealistic today.
All of the leads are on top form, and Douglas demonstrates once again that he's more versatile than people might think.
Julianne Moore and Annette Bening star as a lesbian couple whose lives are turned upside down when their children get in touch with the sperm donor who fathered them.
It’s like a play in that almost everything relates to conversations between the main five characters.
Moore and Benning are brilliant at playing absolutely insufferable know-it-alls. It’s quite painful to watch their self-importance, expertly rendered through gestures, phrasing and body language.
Also brilliant are Mia Wasikowska and Josh Hutcherson playing the children who seem wiser than their mothers, and Mark Ruffalo who plays their newly discovered father.
It’s a fascinating exploration of how relationships and family units work – and don't work.
Their romance is shown in flashback during Gloria’s final days after she comes to stay with her young lover’s mother (Julie Walters) and his family while dying of stomach cancer.
It’s a poignant love story that examines youth, age, celebrity, sexuality and other themes with a lightness of touch.
It’s shot in a deliberately dream-like way, with the Hollywood sunshine deliberately contrasting with the “grim oop north” English light.
