helen haines

I managed to watch it until the end - just! An absolute mishmash of a plot with washed up actors who must have terrific agents! The two leads were good - however how they managed to act so well with such a ridiculous premise is testimony to their acting skills! An awful waste of time!

It had its moments with Christian Bale’s comedy talents being a real surprise but basically a mess! The direction was ham fisted, the scrip too wordy and the pace much too slow. A real waste of talent!

A complete waste of time. It was all dressed up beautifully but there was nothing inside. They kept throwing in furfies that led nowhere. A ridiculous plot that I grew tired of by episode three! It was as if the writers started with something good but didn’t know what to do with it so just kept adding more and more ridiculous scenarios! You’ve been warned - watch something else.

Too many neurotic characters for me - basically, great scenery, looking for a decent plot!

There were far too many “why’s” in this one!

Extraordinarily raw portrayal of a terrible loss. The acting is flawless - I loved I!

Phoenix is remarkable and in every scene BUT I feel he’s wasted in this rather depressingly long movie. I found it pretty facile and very gloomy ( I guess that was its point), but also too self indulgent and obvious. The movie however belongs to Joaquin - and the Oscar!

Started off with great expectations - camera work was terrific and long shots filled with promise, music was fabulous and in many ways very evocative of the times - acting was excellent - particularly Brad Pitt’s under acting (hard to achieve) but Leonardo was also brilliant albeit in an easier role to play perhaps BUT a few silly and unnecessary scenes that I’d deem mawkish eg the child actor’s reaction to Leonardo’s acting; Brad Pitt’s character defeating Bruce Lee in an impromptu duel but by far the most unnecessary and indulgent scenes were with De Caprio playing his cowboy roles (why so damn long). Not by a long shot as good as “Reservoir Dogs” or “Django Unchained” but nevertheless a four star movie!