This was actually a well-plotted, well-acted, intelligently written thriller and a really good movie…up until about 10 minutes from the end when it went just one twist too far and basically EVERYTHING falls apart from that moment on. And I mean EVERYTHING. If you go home and think about what that moment CHANGES, you get about 17,000 strands going off in the wrong direction that just don’t even make sense anymore.

At the exact moment it happened, P. and I looked over at each other, and I said “Sigh” and he made the universal hand motion for “DOWNHILL” and the movie just threw away all the good it had been up to that point.

If you pretend those 10 minutes didn’t happen: some really tight performances by Russell Crowe and Ben Affleck, and Helen Mirren was great, and Rachel McAdams really made her part sing, and Jason Bateman has really made himself a new career out of playing slimeballs so well (what with this and with Juno) and there was some nice cinematography and wow Jeff Daniels looks HORRIBLE, WTF happened to him. And then BAM. 10 minutes of suckage that destroys all the fine plotting of the previous two hours.

Ah well. Happens to the best of us, doesn’t it. I know my plotting falls apart pretty much every time I try. (I’m talking Life there, not Movies.)