This is an awesome film... I just got the DVD on Saturday...Here is my review...

Beautiful...
 

...like a Bulldog.

=)

Saw it on Valentine's with my wife and we both fell in love with this film. I wish there were more movies that had the amount of joy shining though that Bellville had.

Spoiler Alert!!!!!!!!!!!!


I am bumping an old thread, but I just saw this movie tonight.

Honestly, I am stunned reading some of comments on this movie.

I am incredibly open-minded about movies. My friends crack jokes that I am a movie snob and that I like boring films. I saw the accolades for this movie and was prepared for an incredible movie experience.

I could not have been more disappointed, and I really do not understand what all of the praise is about. Read the following knowing that I was looking forward to this movie so, so much, and that I wanted it to be good. No....not good, I wanted it to be great.

I read this thread and Ebert's review, and I would swear that we watched a completely different movie.

It was strange, but not so strange that I felt that I was seeing something inventive. I kept waiting, and waiting, and waiting for the movie to.....well.....move!

I kept waiting for the humor, I kept waiting for a song, I kept waiting for that little moment that makes you say "Ahhhhh......now this is what we were waiting for."

My complaints, and please, please tell me why I am wrong on this one:

1. The best musical number was in the opening with the 40's style animation. That song was good....very good....but was not to be repeated again, in that quality, in the film.

2. There was not one laugh. I sat in a theater with 40 people and did not hear one laugh.

3. The extended and extended and extended periods of silence. I understand that silence sets a mood or tone, but there were so many opportunities to pull out of the murk: the dog dream sequences would have been a perfect chance to break the monotony and to show something different. The dream sequences were just as boring as the "live" sequences. And yes, I did understand that they were establishing character and motive, but I didn't feel that the movie pushed far enough. Every time I thought a great point was being made, I felt like punching the chair in front of me, in frustration at the story not being told.

4. I hate musicals, but I was absolutely dying to hear a song after, what I felt was nothing more than a good short animated film being dragged out well beyond its means.

5. There is a beautiful song used early in the movie. If you want to hear it (and see it) played properly, watch "32 Short Films About Glen Gould." I highly recommend it.

6. The citscapes, animation of the cars, and ocean scenes are great......great. But they are not worth the rest of this movie. The way that the animators get the "weight" of the cars to look right is, well, fantastic.

7. The ultimate question: Did I care about the characters? No.

I went with three friends.....one fell asleep, and the other two pelted me with popcorn for my bad recommendation. We talked about the movie for thirty minutes afterwards, searching for a way that we missed what every critic I have read has praised. We never found it.

What did I miss?