awit72

Paltrow winning the Oscar over Cate Blanchett remains one of the world's great artistic injustices. She gives an obnoxiously affected performance, but liberally shows her tits. Hence the Oscar is won in Weinstein's world.

If you compare the two performances, it's like watching a high school kid wax on versus a masterful thespian at the top of her craft.

Paltrow was sometimes a decent actress in her younger days, but her narcissism shows here, and in many of her performances. Blanchett is forceful and magnificent as the Virgin Queen.

The movie itself is OK. I personally did not enjoy it that much. It has little charm, but much pretension. Much like Paltrow's off-putting performance.

This movie is excellent.

A thought-provoking gem of a movie with a curiously gentle soul lacking in most movies today. Everything about it is magical, the way it is scored, filmed, and orchestrated throughout. Phoenix as the troubled Leonard gives a most affecting performance, and Paltrow gives one of the few believable performances I've seen her deliver. She was not a movie star but Michelle (whatever "star" means, I assume she has to use the bathroom in the morning like the rest of us).

I enjoyed all the performers here, in particular Phoenix, Shaw (who is very effective in her role), and Rossellini, who of course is Bergman's daughter. I also enjoyed the actor who played the father, previously unknown to me.

With Jewish Brooklyn as a backdrop, this movie explores one man's desperate need for love, family ties, and what it means to have an invisible illness.