I like funny films, and they are a rarity these days. So I wasn't looking forward to this film (my girlfriend was, of course), and so was very pleasantly surprised. Much of the theater stuff--earnest actors and director trying to find a way to make Ibsen "relevant"--was just laugh-out-loud funny. The actor playing the director was perfect (I don't think I've seen him, or any of the others, before). Otherwise, it took me a while to find a way in to the film, as the lead actress was a bit catatonic, but as the film got deeper into Kate's feelings of loss and confusion (and the laughs dried up), I was completely swept into it. Again, perhaps because I wasn't expecting it, that feeling of loss and confusion, and how hard it is to find our own way, just swept over me and I started to cry. Yes, I actually "laughed and cried."