I’d been aware of the movie as “an Ethan Hawke and Uma Thurman” vehicle since it came out – and boy, did that not sound appealing.
But I put it on our Netflix Q during that “OMG we have Netflix – add everything you’ve ever even considered seeing” fervor, and it has finally burbled up to the top.
My expectations were very low.
Then I found out Jude Law was in it – never seen anything I liked him in…starting to prepare to watch a known good movie afterwards to take the bad taste away.
And then almost immediately after it starts – “Whoa – I hadn’t thought of that – but it makes complete sense! What an amazingly good scifi idea” and then “Oh eek! and I would never have thought of reacting to it like THAT either.”
I think it really resonated for me because I can identify with that “Going to the stars or bust!” attitude. Like everyone else, when I was little I wanted to be an astronaut, and of course, that attitude is a driving force in a ton of the sci fi I grew up with.
The ideas are wonderful. (And not in a Solaris, not really scifi, crazy psychic Russian way.) The story is told really well. The actors all do a really great job on their parts: Jude Law is FANTASTIC. They should think of him whenever they need someone arrogant and nearly useless, but with attitude. Ethan Hawke … still not my favorite, but did a wonderful job of the transformation in the role. Uma … was a sop to the idea that you MUST have a love interest, but ok. At least she didn’t look like hell and have negative chemistry with her love interest, like in Paycheck.
And that’s all I can say – cause I’m sure there’s other people out there who haven’t seen it, and I want them to get the surprise if they want it.
