Simply Perfect

Fanciful, disturbing, and wildly original, it announces the arrival of a fresh, bold voice in American cinema.

There are moments in this movie where the great movie it could've been peek out... They're fleeting, here, but they're worth savoring, and they happen often enough to make it worth your while.

The story, direction, characters, and writing/dialogue is akin to taking a tranquilizer shot to the neck, but everything else was so well done.

This movie is about religious philosophy. If you are not into religious philosophy or seeing the raw sexuality of Milla Jovovich then go elsewhere. The movie asks questions about the seemingly contradiction of free will vs. God's will. If God has a master plan, then aren't our wrong doings part of it? If so, should we regret our sins?In what appears to be a role reversal De Niro places a parole officer and Edward Norton a prisoner. Early on we find out that De Niro has some anger management problems. As a child he hit his brother in the head with a hammer and threatened to kill his daughter if his wife left him. He is the parole officer who judges people.Norton plays a convict who started a fire to cover up a crime committed by his cousin. His nickname is "Stone." Stone, according to the new religion of Norton is the beginning phase of a soul. We all start out as stones and work our way up to humans as part of the eternal process. His simple questions and answers cause De Niro to think and examine his own life and religious belief.Milla's religious views come out late in the movie, and they too have an effect on De Niro. Much of the movie consists of various conversations with very little action. The background radio chatter of a religion station sets the mood. If you know how to listen, God will talk to you. Sex, nudity, f-bomb and a few other expletives that surprised me.Milla is extremely sensual in this film: Her eyes, raised eyebrow, lips, smile, mannerisms, nudity, and especially her whispers.

I Know , i know- it has low review score- almost unwatchable , right ?so . which one of the 3- Edward Norton, Milla Jovovich, Robert De Niro -acted badly- none in my option. Just that...its has no thrilling actions nor any digital special effect, the story is not extraordinary ,so the new I-phone generation would Never have the patience to withstand 1hour and 45 minutes of true documentary; in the sense that if it happen to you; you would end up the same way..The is more of a Thriller psychological Type 90's popular flake type- like Silent of the Lamb without the Violence(oh- Milla J went naked !!)

It was just too painful. Norton did a good job of playing a regular middle-class guy pretending to be a criminal. You could really tell he was just a regular guy because of the goofy hair-do and fakey accent, like what a high-school kid might come up with so as to appear tough.De Niro did a good job of playing a regular mild-mannered accountant-type guy pretending to be someone who worked with criminals. You could really tell he was just another regular guy because he was completely ignorant of how criminals manipulate people, and he kept a picture of his wife on his desk where incarcerated murderers could see it and start interesting discussions with him about his family life.

Maybe I "missed the point" or "didn't analyze the character's actions enough" or didn't go out and discuss the movie with friends over cherry pie. I don't know. Here's what I do know - I was looking forward to this film BIG TIME! I'm a fan of the 3 main actors; and considering what Edward Norton pulled off in American History X (the scene where Norton surrenders to the police, and he's all buffed out/shaved head/goatee... and then does that grin/eyebrow lift... scarier than anything "Hannibal Lecter" ever did!), I was more than eager to see him in another prison movie. But a movie about emotions and redemption and whatnot... some movies pull this off beautifully. I just saw an indie flick called "I Melt With You", and I recommend it for any male out there. A synopsis would sound dumb, but any guy who is reaching 40 and realizes his life isn't what he thought it would be when he was 20 will be able to relate to all 4 main characters. But "Stone"... none of what the characters did seemed at all realistic, and their "personality changes" seem based on nothing at all. Like I said in my title, the movie was incredibly boring, and when it was over, all I could think of was, "What was the point of that??"