Bitterly Brilliant
Added 3/9/2009
This is a love triangle story like it's never been done before. All three lead actors are simply great, and the agony and ecstasy they put each other through leads to a knockout of an ending. Patricia Clarkson is at her peak, playing a wealthy wife who has failed as a scriptwriter and Campbell Brown is terrific as the bisexual husband with no morals who alternately adores and ignores her. Peter Saarsgard is also great as the gay scriptwriter who is on the verge of having it all, except the one thing he really wants to reclaim - his lost love.
0 out of 0 people found this helpful.
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I loved this movie. But I found the ending too weak (just me. i am not a pro critic or anything).
The good thing is I liked the alternate ending which is included in the DVD. I wont write it and spoil the movie but the alternate ending makes everything more clear.
Great acting as always by Campbell Scott. Hats off to him. Patricia Clarkson and Peter Sarsgaard are also brilliant in their roles.
So this movie is recommended by me...
0 out of 0 people found this helpful.
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Fabulous......
Added 9/4/2007
Straight to DVD for the 2005 Sundance Film Festival. It was good. Though the premise - a recently bereaved gay screenwriter (Sarsgaard) sells his first screenplay to a married Hollywood executive (Scott), with whom he then starts an affair - is intriguing enough, the film lacks punch and too often betrays its origins as the director's own stage play.
Having said that, our cinemas are stuffed with Hollywood product far less interesting and elegantly written than this, and all three lead actors are thoroughly believable. Clarkson is particularly strong as the betrayed wife who assumes a male online identity to uncover the truth about her husband's bisexuality, but any potential for suspense fizzles out disappointingly.
4 out of 5 people found this helpful.
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Great acting, but by the end you won't care for any of the three protagonists
Added 2/6/2007
I came to this page struggling with how to encapsulate my take on 'Dying Gaul,' but I see that amazon reviewer Josh Lanyon has nailed it perfectly: "The actors were brilliant and the thing is so beautifully shot--the music, mood, the little touches--all great. And all rather beside the point."
Exactly. Patricia Clarkson, Campbell Scott, Peter Sarsgaard are all spectacular here. I thought Scott was the standout. And, the movie looks incredible. But the dark mood of the movie got darker and darker...and simply less likable. By the end, you won't care for any of the three protagonists. I watched the movie with two other people. None of us liked the ending...nor did it matter by that point. We just wanted it to end. We were intrigued by the presence of an 'alternate ending' on the DVD. It's basically the same ending, but it goes on a bit longer and only confirms that the ambiguity of the released ending was intended (one character expresses the ambiguity in a voice over).
3 out of 5 people found this helpful.
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Infuriatingly disappointing
Added 11/14/2006
What were they all thinking? That we could or would swallow this disaster of a movie whole?
Clarkson is almost passable as a totally helpless woman who is faced with her husband's bisexuality -- a no-win situation for any woman. She has reason to be guilty where Sarsgaard's character is concerned -- she with her handy computer -- but frankly who cares!
Sarsgaard is so mystifying, wavering between men and memories and whatever till in an act of vicious vengeance he causes the death of two completely innocent people and one who's sorta guilty.
The actor who plays the husband, whose name momentarily escapes me probably because I've seen him give this same performance in almost everything I've seen him do -- could his name be xerox? -- is so predictable as to be thoroughly forgettable even when he is "acting up a storm"! See his final scene and the alternate ending [which are practically indistinguishable from one another].
These characters are in no way sympathetic, nor is the picture likeable or in any way enjoyable. Prosit.
The one star is for the cinematography, which is acceptable.
6 out of 16 people found this helpful.
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Bitterly Brilliant
Added 3/9/2009
This is a love triangle story like it's never been done before. All three lead actors are simply great, and the agony and ecstasy they put each other through leads to a knockout of an ending. Patricia Clarkson is at her peak, playing a wealthy wife who has failed as a scriptwriter and Campbell Brown is terrific as the bisexual husband with no morals who alternately adores and ignores her. Peter Saarsgard is also great as the gay scriptwriter who is on the verge of having it all, except the one thing he really wants to reclaim - his lost love.
0 out of 0 people found this helpful.
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I loved this movie. But I found the ending too weak (just me. i am not a pro critic or anything).
The good thing is I liked the alternate ending which is included in the DVD. I wont write it and spoil the movie but the alternate ending makes everything more clear.
Great acting as always by Campbell Scott. Hats off to him. Patricia Clarkson and Peter Sarsgaard are also brilliant in their roles.
So this movie is recommended by me...
0 out of 0 people found this helpful.
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Fabulous......
Added 9/4/2007
Straight to DVD for the 2005 Sundance Film Festival. It was good. Though the premise - a recently bereaved gay screenwriter (Sarsgaard) sells his first screenplay to a married Hollywood executive (Scott), with whom he then starts an affair - is intriguing enough, the film lacks punch and too often betrays its origins as the director's own stage play.
Having said that, our cinemas are stuffed with Hollywood product far less interesting and elegantly written than this, and all three lead actors are thoroughly believable. Clarkson is particularly strong as the betrayed wife who assumes a male online identity to uncover the truth about her husband's bisexuality, but any potential for suspense fizzles out disappointingly.
4 out of 5 people found this helpful.
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