Purpose

How do you measure success? By winning "the game"? This film does an excellent job of posing that question in the milieu of smart, driven, talented 20something cyberkings who make (and lose) it all in a high tech high stakes poker game. Who's bluffing and who's really got what it takes? "Purpose" is smart, funny, fast paced and right on top of its subject matter.

I saw this movie recently - I had heard about it via the grapevine and was not sure what to expect - I was very impressed. The art direction in this movie was excellent and the story line kept me interested all the way through. The main song that was featured a few times was very catchy. All in all I thought it was a highly provocative movie with an important message. We all need a sense of purpose.

I liked this story very much, especially in a time where greed and money seem to be the front page themes of our national headlines lately. Purpo$e did a good job of posing the question to it's audience, "Why do you do what you do?" It looked amazing and the pace was sharp. I especially enjoyed Hal Holbrook as the Old Money Tycoon. Alan Lazar did a very good job in his feature debut and I look forward to his future projects.

Purpose, as a whole, does a good job of showing how money, power, and life in the fast lane during the dot.com boom in San Francisco can corrupt even those with good intentions. Jeffery Donovan (Robert) is great as the smooth talking deal closer that visionary John Elias (newcomer John Light) hires to help start the company. Paul Reiser, hardly recognizable as the mentor and friend to John, is funny and adds a lot to the film. Mia Farrow looks stunning, yet believable as the financial mogul out to make some money off the new company. Hal Holbrook and Peter Coyote add to the film, if nothing else than recognizable faces and steady acting. The film looks amazing, with fantastic shots of San Francisco and creative interiors that dominate the new money internet offices. Could be a sleeper hit if all the people who lost their jobs in the dot.com bust want to re-live it. It has a deep meaning behind the story of quality over quantity. I'd recommend it.

About the only good thing I can say about "Purpose" is it does try to deliver a message about what's important in life on the heels of a boom/bust cycle of a new generation of materialistic status-oriented X-gen yuppies with dot-coms in their eyes. As a film, "Purpose" tries too hard to be hip with a script packed with buzz words and comtempo cliches and some guy who looks like Ray Liotta's kid as an upwardly mobile hotshot Bill Gates wannabee in the lead. Obviously the product of a newbie auteur, "Purpose" doesn't build much depth in its characters, is waaaay too cute, and seems to be little more than a slick new wrapper on an old story. Pass on this one unless maybe you're a computer geek who aspires to be another Micheal Dell or Steve Jobs. (C)