I read the reviews on-site and many off-site before watching this and saw they were very polarized, so I even went through some European reviews, which treated it quite a bit nicer but which were also pretty polarized. I did notice that, as of this writing, 20% of the people voting here on IMDb gave it a 10, which is significantly higher than even George Clooney's latest film, "The American" received, although it has a somewhat higher overall score. The major complaint I read amongst all the reviews was about the ongoing narration but, I thought, it's only a dollar rental and if it's too intrusive I can always watch something else. So, I decided to give it a spin.
Imagine you are watching a young man in a room, alone with the open casket of his mother, who had just passed away from cancer. He's thinking that the wig the undertaker put on her, to hide her hair loss from the therapy, was unbecoming. He would rather see her for the last time as she really was at the end of her days, bald-headed. This is an important thought of his, which sets up a subsequent scene that would otherwise be totally inexplicable.
How can a film-maker express this thought? By introducing someone into the room with which the young man can have a conversation about this? No, that destroys the solitude of the moment. By having him speak this thought aloud to his mother's remains? Not very likely. By creating a completely new scene where someone is present and then create an artifice to have a conversation about it? No, that adds unnecessary complexity and bulk to wade through, confusing the storyline.
What Schumacher does is to use a narrator to give the viewer a short-cut directly into the minds of his characters at times - many times. This makes the film somewhat more like a visual book than a movie. It wouldn't do for most movies but it was effective here. (I got a good chuckle from the vapidity of the last thought of Sara's that we are exposed to.) It is a different approach but I, for one, enjoyed it. I most probably would not of enjoyed the book this film is based on, as I don't think there was enough plot substance here to make an enjoyable book for me but I do think there was sufficient substance for a film. 6.5 out of 10.
