Dave Smith

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Impressive performance in many ways but a shorter film would probably have been a better film. Brendan Fraser deserves much credit but so many of the script ideas seem to be sledgehammered into place multiple times. Charlie reveals himself to his students then to the peripheral pizza deliverer. An essay by his daughter gets endlessly referred to and passed back and forth with leaden footed references to the whale in Moby Dick. A young fellow of no great importance keeps coming tediously through the door before being sent on his unmerry way. The voluntary nurse pops in with stethoscope and obligatory but futile tut tuts " every 100 pounds taken off can count" (as it were). And so on. A simpler mix of less overworked ideas might have worked wonders for the overall effect. The film does have a point but it could be more pithily made. By the way I wonder why so many have whinged about the prosthetic obese version of Mr Fraser. There are endlessly prolific, if lighter, versions of him on view around feeding time at KFC especially in the US. Just another pending cliche in a movie that's overly full of them.

Simply loved it. The search across old America is fascinating. Both the hunter and the hunted had no idea of what they were getting into. Each day on the run involves tossing a ball into a roulette wheel. Even perceived friends have inexplicable motives and values. The fugitives seem so well matched at the start but as time goes by (and the humiliations multiply) their relationship is sorely tested. There is a head on collision between the everyday and the divine. What seems to be solid forever proves to be breathtakingly changeable. Great authorship. Sobering story.