Title: Creeps predictably along
Product review: As much as I wanted to like it, I found this movie bland and boring. Winslet is wasted, Depp mumbles along, and Dustin Hoffman phones his performance in. The boys didn't convince me either. The direction was flat-footed and had none of the wonder I was hoping for, given the subject matter. The music score is soppy and cliched, and the whole thing is shot like a Hallmark holiday TV special. A good idea for a movie that telegraphs its eventual resolutions about 20 minutes into the film; after that there's little point in watching. I kept waiting for some twist, some insight into their conditions, some surprise, but got none. I have no problem with "slow," quiet movies a la Horton Foote, but they have to have some inner life that makes them special. This is very straight-forward, obvious drama, told with a lot of self-importance.
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