Failure to launch

I've given a slightly misleading title to this entry. No I didn't watch the Sarah Jessica Parker rom-com, Failure To Launch. But as average as that film was, I kind of wish I had.

The movie I did watch last night was Brick. As mentioned in my last post, this was McNinja's choice for movie night. A solid pick. Recommended by critics. Reasonable cast and crew. So why didn't it work for me?

Personally, I don't feel this movie ever got off the ground. Joseph Gordon-levitt plays our protagonist and quite frankly, I didn't care for him one bit. He finds the body of a girl. His girlfriend. Of how long? I don't know. And that just where the problems begin. There wasn't enough emotional reasoning behind his potentially fatal journey for me to care why he was on it. This happens in the first few minutes of the film too, so a total failure to launch.

Because I didn't buy in at the beginning, I struggled for the rest of the film. The dialogue was forced and contrived and the film tried way too hard with it's style over substance attitude. I mean, I got it. At least I got what it was trying to do. But it didn't work for me on any level.

The style was reminiscent of a Hitchcock murder mystery. I have nothing against paying homage to the classics, but this was way over the top. It wasn't just a nod to Hitchcock. It was an annoying nodding dog on the dashboard of Hitchcock's car.

I'm glad, as always, that I watched this film, but unless you're a die hard movie buff, I wouldn't recommend it. A try hard, let down.

In two weeks time, it's Woody's turn to choose a movie for us and I'm hoping it's gonna be good. Following on from The City of Lost Children, I guess the only way is up.

Woody, in the words of White Men Can't Jump's immortal Sydney Deane, "Don't put up no brick"