Absolutely the worst movie.

A great movie, one of the best of this year. There was a bit of confusion at one point in the plot, but nothing serious.

The acting in this movie is really good.

The movie turns out to be a little better than the average. Starting from a romantic formula often seen in the cinema, it ends in the most predictable (and somewhat bland) way.

The great movie reviewer, Gene Siskel, once said that the only way to evaluate a movie is to start by asking yourself what the creators of the movie intended ... what they intended here, and delivered, is a weird black comedy, filled with fine performances by exceptional actors, that never ever goes where you think it is going. Just when you expected something the movie goes another way. Is it perfect, of course not. Will you have a lot of fun if you just let it take you on its journey ... maybe not, but in that case you have no sense of humor at all, ... these actors clearly enjoyed playing these roles and delivering these lines ... they had fun too.

This film has some plot trick that seem hardly understandable to some. The only one problem is that how could the crazy son predict, that the father will win a Nobel prize, or how could he plot the kidnapping (which is a good plot) within the interval between naming the Nobel laureate and actually presenting the prize. OK, he was spying on the family for long time, and the single molecular spectroscopy was a Nobel-worth idea, bu no one can ever guess, when such a work gets the actual prize (if it gets at all).All the other strange things, like the suffering wife (who does not actually seem suffering beside her husband, until their son is kidnapped, these egoistic guys can be very magnetic in their ways), the changing of the less crazy son while being kidnapped (the more crazy son manages to turn him against the already not much liked father by showing some convincing and less convincing proofs of the father's evilness (by the way, the handwritings are the less convincing facts, they can easily be made up)), the lack of make up after the kidnapping (realistic), or the evil son"s killing the neighbour (1. convincing the police, that the neighbour was the kidnapper, 2. if this does not come in, convincing the police that the less crazy son was his own kidnapper + getting the place above the garage, which is the first step for getting his place in his father's heart and wiping the other son out of it totally), etc. can be easily followed, if wanted. It seems that there were mostly two kinds of reviewers, those who liked the music and wanted to understand, and those, who didn't. Anyway, for having such extreme opinions, it must be a fairly good film.It is clear, that the writers don't understand much in chemistry (in university professor level, no one would be so satisfied with a used car dealer, who knows, what size the molecules are, that they would invite him to their lab), but the plot and the filming is disturbing enough to be worth watching. The ending is not well developed, it is true.The reference to cannibalism is beautiful, it is true, that such a man (all kinds of genies, and this professor was a kind of genius, even is not in single molecule spectroscopy) can "eat" his family alive, and at the end he is eaten alive by his suppressed son, when the reference returns.

This really was a hard film to watch. And considering many of these known actors are usually quite good I have to assume that the Director wanted to take a fine group of actors and make them look and act as bad as possible. Or this was made with a lot of favors and now lost friendships. The lighting was horrific. Either that or the cast has aged twenty years recently. Mary, Bill; everyone except Danny looked like they had become old soft and wrinkled over night. The dialogue........who on earth wrote the dialogue. Yeah this in one of those films where you see a cast of mismatched actors who have aged and no one wants to hire them. So they take a film, any film and grab the pay check. EXCEPT that this particular group of actors are NOT that. These are all good actors, these are wonderful actors. And when I see wonderful actors who work in a show like this I have to guess a favor is at hand.

I thoroughly enjoyed this film, from beginning to end. The superb acting of Mary Steenburgen, Alan Rickman, Bill Pullman, and Danny DeVito, was icing on the cake of an already fantastic movie. My adrenaline was pumping throughout the film with a great soundtrack by Paul Oakenfold. It's nice to go to the movies and see a truly independent film made with such a wide release, and such a great cast. Randall Miller, who co-wrote, and co-produced with Jody Savin and also directed and edited this film, did a wonderful job, and deserves great respect. Every scene was captivating and fun with Bryan Greenberg and Shawn Hatosy proving themselves in starring roles. While movies like Revolutionary Road, and The Curious Case Of Benjamin Button are getting all the credit for such moving performances and so on, but this film deserves great recognition for the true genius of every second of this film. Truly the unsung hero, underdog, and most underrated film of the year. Don't miss out on any chance to see this film.