He's not a good guy, but he is an interesting one.
Howard was an argumentative, crass, and deeply prejudiced character whose profound lack of self-awareness made me shake my head. He was the last person I'd ever want to spend time with in real life, and yet I found myself fascinated by his repeated refusals to learn from his mistakes or listen to the feedback he was given about his abhorrent behavior from many of the women who crossed his path.
Other films on this topic would generally shown a small crack in the main character's persona early on as evidence that he knew what he was doing was wrong and that he was at least theoretically capable of changing. The fact that this one gave the audience no hints about him learning the error of his ways or even admitting he had major issues relating to other human beings only made me more curious to see how such a belligerent and stubborn character would react to all of the plot twists that were being thrown his way.
I was often confused by the flashbacks in the storyline. While some of them were necessary in order to understand the deeper meanings of the plot, they happened so regularly that I struggled to keep the timeline in order in my head. Once or twice I paused this film in order to write down how I thought everything fit together and then checked it later to see if I was correct. It would have been helpful if more of the most important scenes had been shown in the order they actually occurred. There were times when I was totally wrong about how they should have fit together, and that only puzzled me more.
Blending the satirical and dreamlike elements of the plot together was a good choice. This was especially true during the portions of it near the end that would have been easy to take literally if they'd been shot in a more straightforward manner. I appreciated having these reminders to dig more deeply into what was happening and think critically about what I was watching. They did a good job of tying up some loose ends for me.
Howard Original kept me on my toes. I'd recommend it to anyone who is in the mood for something genre bending and thought provoking.
