(Don’t ask.   It’s for work.)   Blech.   I loved the book, and the elements of the movie are not bad — except for Penelope Cruz, who just is not an actress — but put together, it doesn’t work.   Lucas Black is great; Damon’s accent is pretty solid; the cinematography is beautiful; it just never catches fire.   McCarthy gives the story a sense of beautiful hopelessness, if that makes any sense, and I don’t know if it translates well, and I think part of the problem is that, besides Black, the actors are just too old to be playing these characters, but the story has a sense of pain unremedied by any justice that the movie can’t quite get at.   It’s not awful; it just doesn’t quite take off.   (7/15/04)

Share!