RE-view!Sometimes you can put enough distance between yourself and a movie you panned that you forget what you thought about it in the first place. So when my aunt, sister, and I were trying to pick a movie to watch this weekend, and they asked me if they would like this one, I said, "I think I liked it, but I don't know if you will." We watched it with the two of them tutt-tutting over every swear and "inappropriate" line of dialogue. When the credits rolled, my sister announced, "Well, I think that was a flop!" My aunt agreed.
And I? I thought it was a lot better than I had originally suggested. The pacing didn't seem as slow, the camera didn't seem as off, and, while they were wondering what was up with an asynchronous music in the opening sequence, I was smiling. Suddenly it seemed more smart and hip and New York.
What really convinced me that Russell Gerwitz's script was a lot smarter than I gave it credit for? A lot of the theories coming from my viewing partners were off. They are smart ladies: if Lee and Gerwitz could keep them guessing, that's an accomplishment.
I actually started to like the way Owen and Washington were playing off each other. I liked it when Foster got into the mix. Willem Dafoe played the straight man, and it worked. Chiwetel Ejiofor rocked his small roll. It was all a lot more fun than I remembered. And maybe that was my problem last time. Maybe I got so caught up in figuring out the mystery, in the cat and mouse game, in trying to keep track of the various cats and mice in any given scene, that I forgot to just watch.
I think I was a little too harsh last time. This time, I'm bumping it up to a B-.
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