casting!, Kate Winslet!, Mandy Moore!, Christopher Walken!, Steve Buscemi!, (James Gandolfini, Susan Sarandon)

A big slobbering horndog of a jukebox musical. Its characters live a peripheral existence, where NYC drops off into marshland and various miscreants have pooled, and lusty visions dance. The plot is thin, yet somehow made more effective by all the wildly incongruous language and cameos and musical numbers. You get a feeling for the characters circuitously, through a very opaque brand of comedy. Then it turns out they've been sneaking up on you the whole time; they're here to break your heart.

First it pissed me off then, in hindsight, I warmed to its charms. Probably because the overall idea is worthwhile but the execution in places is forced, irritating, or both. But it presents material that is thankfully different than most theater-fodder today.

Reminiscent of The Civilization of Maxwell Bright, in that both films were advertised as being much sexier when they're actually fairly dark and depressing, and have a strong message about human relations. The performances are excellent here, very good direction. Outstanding production design. The thing is that it's pervasively unsexy--to the point of being icky even, and there isn't anyone very likeable in the film either. Which makes you wonder what the point is, unless it's to trick folks.

Moving about adultery.

I'm all for quirky, offbeat films, but this did absolutely nothing for me. Unlikeable characters, a tedious plot and terrible music. I'm not even sure you could call this a musical - it's just actors tunelessly mouthing the words to a well-known track that's playing in the background. It's bad karaoke, basically. Some of the incidental characters (Buscemi and Walken) are pretty funny, but that's about it.

"John Turturro attempts to channel Dennis Potter in an off-the-wall musical with an impressive collection of colorful actors (Christopher Walken, Gandolfini et al), but the result is more like a quirky jukebox that emphasizes the music over the humanist drama."

meh...Walken performing Delliah is the only memorable bit...

Turturro aims for postmodern irony and misses.

Uneven musical that is sometimes great, sometimes heartfelt, and sometimes forced. John Turturro *can* direct, however, even if he sometimes mimics the style of the Coen brothers.

What a ridiculous excuse for a movie and a tremdous waste of talent. I would think that the cast is embarraassed by their participation in this so called movie.

The songs in a musical should enhance the plot and meaning, not be its only source of the two. Without the convention of singing, this was a weird, pointless film with a predictable, boring plot, though Winslet, as always, gives an excellent performance.

Different, well acted, but a few hairs shy of satisfying. About 1/3 of this film just doesn't work.

Wasn't that good! Kate Winslet was the best by far!

A really nice romantic comedy, the musical part is just way to express the emotions. Kate Winslet really does a deliver another good performance.

An awesome cast, lots of Kate Winslet's cleavage and yet... such a mediocre film.