The number of wonderful comments surprised me. There's no question that the cast was excellent. Most of the cast have such compelling personalities in whatever roles they play, I always enjoy watching them. Frances McDormand, Katie Holmes and Robert Downey, Jr. rarely fail to add life to whatever scripts they're given.
None of the cast, however, can compensate for the script. In the first 20 minutes, I whispered to my companion, "I'm loving this!" Then it all never materialized. It was an entire movie of exposition clinging to a clumsy plot made almost entirely of far-flung contrivances. The endless dog bit added nothing to the movie but the promise of suspense. A promise that was never fulfilled. At some point the plot just disposes of the entire premise after slogging the audience through one implausible and uninteresting scene after another.
I did laugh. It was funny. It just didn't hang together.
None of the cast, however, can compensate for the script. In the first 20 minutes, I whispered to my companion, "I'm loving this!" Then it all never materialized. It was an entire movie of exposition clinging to a clumsy plot made almost entirely of far-flung contrivances. The endless dog bit added nothing to the movie but the promise of suspense. A promise that was never fulfilled. At some point the plot just disposes of the entire premise after slogging the audience through one implausible and uninteresting scene after another.
I did laugh. It was funny. It just didn't hang together.