I seem to be in quite the lazy streak lately. In fact, I'm not even sure this movie is still playing. On the off chance that it is and you're thinking about seeing it, I should warn you that it's not quite what the previews make it out to be. On my way in, I was expecting an absurd sort of comedy in the vein of The Royal Tenenbaums. It might have been just that except for one thing: it's based on a memoir. A lot of scenes that might have been funny were instead made kind of horrifying by the idea that they could actually have happened. So despite the fact that I did laugh a few times I actually spent most of the movie cringing. Moreover, apart from the shock value I didn't think there was much to the story. The performances were mostly adequate and while Annette Bening did a brilliant job of portraying the protagonist's psychotic, narcissistic mother, her excellent performance made her that much more difficult to watch. On the strength of Bening's performance I expect there will be some Oscar buzz, but apart from that I don't know that I can really recommend this one.

Viewed: 2006-10-26 | Released: 2006-10-19 | Score: C

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