Lots of quirky characters! Even before the film starts, we are told what the film is about on a couple title cards. That was a little disappointing, since I like to experience the film as it unfolds, without knowing details ahead of time, I wish they had saved the title cards for the end of the film. Ah well.
Billy Crudup is Curtis Prentiss, a scientist with a dream, some eccentric traits, and a schematic for a new invention. He takes on Rick (Paul Giamatti) to help develop the product. Giamatti is also the producer of the film. We seem to spend a lot of time watching Rick and his wife in their odd marriage, so that must be important. Ken Owenby (David Hornsby) is yet another quirky member of the team – he's a high talker, with a silly little barky dog, and hugs a lot.
Pretty good film, but they could have shown a few less scenes of Prentiss' annoying habits ..or maybe at least show some cool, science-y stuff for those of us who dig that. Maybe show what things worked and what didn't. They kind of go right to a successful demonstration without showing us the failures of their invention. They also spend a LOT of time on how Prentiss is a crummy boss and has trouble interacting with others. The conflict between Prentiss and Rick grows to a showdown between them, but at the end of the film, we aren't sure what the actual resolution was. When this is for "artistic reasons", I understand it, but here, I think some major plot scenes were chopped off for this shorter DVD version. Frustrating. Written and directed by Paul Schneider. The entry on IMDb shows 120 minutes, but the DVD itself is 98 minutes, as it states on the DVD back cover. I will update IMDb to include this DVD version length.
Billy Crudup is Curtis Prentiss, a scientist with a dream, some eccentric traits, and a schematic for a new invention. He takes on Rick (Paul Giamatti) to help develop the product. Giamatti is also the producer of the film. We seem to spend a lot of time watching Rick and his wife in their odd marriage, so that must be important. Ken Owenby (David Hornsby) is yet another quirky member of the team – he's a high talker, with a silly little barky dog, and hugs a lot.
Pretty good film, but they could have shown a few less scenes of Prentiss' annoying habits ..or maybe at least show some cool, science-y stuff for those of us who dig that. Maybe show what things worked and what didn't. They kind of go right to a successful demonstration without showing us the failures of their invention. They also spend a LOT of time on how Prentiss is a crummy boss and has trouble interacting with others. The conflict between Prentiss and Rick grows to a showdown between them, but at the end of the film, we aren't sure what the actual resolution was. When this is for "artistic reasons", I understand it, but here, I think some major plot scenes were chopped off for this shorter DVD version. Frustrating. Written and directed by Paul Schneider. The entry on IMDb shows 120 minutes, but the DVD itself is 98 minutes, as it states on the DVD back cover. I will update IMDb to include this DVD version length.