How sad is this?

It's easily one of the freshest, sharpest and most enjoyable films of this year.

It's a good bad... and worth a popcorn matinée. While it's easy to lament what could have been...

An old-fashioned movie made with new-fashioned finesse.

"Wicker Park" is an absorbing romantic mystery about lost love, obsession and tangled relationships and the puzzle at the heart of its convoluted story is made more interesting by its non-linear narrative. Misunderstandings, coincidences and deception all play their parts in what takes place and its neat twists add enormously to the enjoyment of watching this rather intense and often unpredictable drama.After living in New York City for a couple of years, advertising executive Matthew Simon (Josh Hartnett) returns to Chicago with his fiancee Rebecca (Jessica Pare) and attends a business lunch at Bellucci's restaurant ahead of a planned business trip to China. When he catches sight of a woman he believes is his ex-girlfriend Lisa (Diane Kruger), he immediately follows her and after failing to catch up with her, keeps a hotel key card that he finds in the phone booth that she's just vacated. After Rebecca waves him off at the airport, Matthew decides not to catch his plane and instead goes off in search of Lisa.Lisa was the girl who, as well as being the love of Matthew's life, had left him heartbroken two years earlier when she'd disappeared without any explanation and had never contacted him since. Their relationship had started when he'd been working in a Chicago camera shop and fell in love with her at first sight. Matthew had initially stalked her for a while not realizing that she was aware of him and when their paths eventually crossed, it became clear that she was also attracted to him. Their relationship continued until Matthew was offered a more lucrative job in New York City and suggested that they relocate and move in together. Lisa agreed to meet him in Wicker Park to give him a decision but instead stood him up and left him completely puzzled and heartbroken by what she'd done.The key card he'd found in the phone booth leads Matthew to a room in "The Drake" hotel where he discovers some further clues that lead him to what he believes is Lisa's apartment. When he breaks in, he meets another young woman who's also called Lisa. She tells him that she'd stayed at "The Drake" to avoid a man who was stalking her and explaining that she's terrified of him, says that she'd feel a lot more at ease if Matthew could stay the night with her. He agrees to this and is subsequently seduced by the apparently grateful Lisa.One night, Matthew's best friend Luke (Matthew Lillard), insists on taking him to see a Shakespearean play in which his girlfriend Alex (Rose Byrne) is one of the players and after the performance, Matthew leaves promptly not knowing that the heavily made-up Alex is, in fact, the woman who'd so recently seduced him. Most of the reasons for everything that had taken place involving Matthew, Lisa, Alex and Luke are eventually revealed in a meeting that takes place in Bellucci's and this prompts the determined Matthew to go back to the airport in the hope of finally tracking down the girl he loves.The nature of the movie's plot generates a disconcerting atmosphere that's beautifully complemented by the use of numerous film noir motifs such as the use of mirrors, the presence of doubles (e. g. 2 Lisas, 2 characters who fall in love at first sight etc.), a character who uses more than one identity and the way in which the past has such a strong hold over the present. Similarly, its splintered chronology, use of split screen techniques and flashbacks that provide multiple viewpoints, are also all highly effective in serving the same purpose. There's a marked difference between the relaxed, spontaneous Matthew who's seen working in the camera shop and the rather distant-looking young man who doesn't seem to have his heart in it when he's at the business lunch at Bellucci's or the jewellery store he visits with the intention of buying a ring for Rebecca. In his very natural performance, Josh Hartnett reflects such changes in his character's demeanour with some skill and subtlety and Diane Kruger and Matthew Lillard perform capably in their roles. Rose Byrne, however, outshines everyone else in the cast as the deceitful, obsessive and clearly unhinged Alex who's also both hateful and pitiful."Wicker Park" is a movie that has to be seen more than once in order to fully appreciate it and this, no doubt, must've had some effect on the level of commercial success that it achieved.

I haven't seen the (highly regarded) original French film "L'Appartement" of which "Wicker Park" is a remake, but there is one specific plot point - the non-use of cell-phones - that seems to be carried over from the 1996 film and is much harder to swallow in 2004. Also, the ending is a tad conventional. Other than that, however, "Wicker Park" is a very good movie: visually hypnotic, emotionally compelling, and intellectually challenging. It is put together like a puzzle, jumping back and forth in time, with a remarkable attention to detail; midway through it even shifts perspectives and makes you re-consider who is actually the main character in the story! Josh Hartnett is fine, but Rose Byrne steals the show with her affecting performance. An underrated film. *** out of 4.

This film ends up being predictable, downright silly and boring... Destiny makes it so that 2 persons that love each other behave in such a stupid and naive way, that they actually can't find each other, I'll leave the rest of the story for you to figure it out, which is quite easy actually.This film's tempo is slow to a crawl, when you pretty much guess what's going to happen next, the Director tosses around flashbacks to explain the silly way everyone acts in this movie, this makes the story unnecessarily long and tedious to watch, a 30 minute short film would have served the story in a much more respectful manner for the audience and more than enough to convey the general premise. It is quite sad to see Diane Kruger & Josh Harnett on such a weak attempt.

I watched the original French movie on a long haul flight in 1997 when I was 11 (captain's pick). I was so confused yet so intrigued when you know what became popular in the early 2000's I looked and found it again on my campus sharing network. The original made me a fan of French movies, of Monica Bellucci. I was also old enough to understand Max's choice in the end. And i was extremely intrigued with a movie that DARED to tear lovers apart. (I guess It's still a forbidden concept in America). Reading the comments here, I think the vast majority do not realize Wicker Park was a remake. It's not 'unique', it's not a 'never before seen concept', its just a remake of all those things. But I dare say it failed. For one the ending was completely changed. Which makes the movie predictable just like the rest. It took away the element of reality, that men actually have the ability to make judgement and not be led by love and obsession. I guess I prefer movies that tell the truth, like woody allen's Match Point, where people do get away with murder. In this sense, this movie took a great classic, made it Hollywood to appease the audience's appetite, but at the meantime destroyed the delicate relationships that intrigued in the original. More and more great modern Europeans movies are being remade in the US, please people, do your homework and at least give the original concept a try before the remake, you will be surprised.