Any modern contemporary-set movie featuring a hero in a cowboy hat and a raft of C&W ballads is usually in trouble from the opening credits, and this flick doesn't do much to buck the trend. From the opening scene ( a woman in white strolling through a field of flowers in brilliant sunshine, joined by a cowboy on a white horse...) we are firmly in romantic territory, albeit tinctured with a hint of fantasy.
Haynes' direction is irritating at times. Although he already had three movies under his belt before this effort, with his jarring switch of styles (jump-cutting, hand-held, slo-mo, etc) he gives the impression of an eager young director fresh out of film school, which sits uncomfortably with the sophisticated air he seems, at times, to be striving for. However, there are some good touches in this movie (for some reason, the fat guy biting into an apple in the supermarket then replacing it on the display struck a chord), and some gentle, endearing humour. Nevertheless, watching this movie is a bit like watching a naive sixteen-year-old girl trying to fool you she's really twenty-eight.
Haynes' direction is irritating at times. Although he already had three movies under his belt before this effort, with his jarring switch of styles (jump-cutting, hand-held, slo-mo, etc) he gives the impression of an eager young director fresh out of film school, which sits uncomfortably with the sophisticated air he seems, at times, to be striving for. However, there are some good touches in this movie (for some reason, the fat guy biting into an apple in the supermarket then replacing it on the display struck a chord), and some gentle, endearing humour. Nevertheless, watching this movie is a bit like watching a naive sixteen-year-old girl trying to fool you she's really twenty-eight.