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| DIRECTED BY |
| Steven Soderbergh
|
| STARRING |
| David Duchovny |
| Nicky Katt |
| Catherine Keener |
| Mary McCormack |
| David Hyde Pierce |
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I must first state that I admire Soderbergh�s chutzpah to even make a film that has the potential �interpretation power� to make him look as if he�s trying to stick it to his colleagues in quite an irreverent manner. But � thanks to an unnecessarily puzzling/cryptic and omnidirectional script � the film only works as a satire some of the time.
Much of it is made complex simply for the sake of complexity, such as the idea that we�re viewing a cinema verit�-style film about people who are making a film and that film is actually about the making of a film as well. This all may sound quite witty but it�s actually just annoying. The film successfully creates some very dark undertones with a character�s sudden suicide, but it�s made a lot less impactful than it could�ve been thanks to the age-old criticism of poor character development.
There�s a good idea embedded within this confusion, I�m sure of it. The final shot could�ve been so much more effective if the phoniness within the relationships between these people was better developed. It�s very well represented within the relationship between Lee and Carl and even Calvin and Francesca, but I�m just not sure what to think about Arty and Linda. Soderbergh appears to be content with simply linking them together in this ironically coincidental and creative sort of way and then throwing us his big punchline, which doesn�t hit nearly as hard as it could have.
