Fernando Meirelles, an Academy Award and Golden Globe nominee, was evidently able to employ such a great cast (Anthony Hopkins, Jude Law, Rachel Weisz, Ben Foster - above all) thank to his prior fame, and screenwriter Peter Morgan is no amateur either, but the outcome is somehow protracted and arid (however, strange references to my country were included, not often in English-speaking films). Not all the different stories are intertwined (although the characters within have common features like painful memories and unhappy present) and the events and dreams depicted are not catchy to follow - in spite of their reality. Main value of the film are versatile actors of different ethnicities and scenes filmed on the spot, in different locations. Most of stories end up with no clear ending - apart from the Russian-Slovakian storyline; thus, the very ending does not finalise the total 360, letting you feel ambivalent, when the credits appear. The film includes definitely some profundity, but it is not interesting in the sense of spending time.
