question: Stone boasts a cast that includes Robert De Niro, Edward Norton, and Milla Jovovich, and it features strong dialogue, but it's ultimately undone by its heavy-handed symbolism and overabundant plot twists.

numbered reviews: 1. The seesaw effect of the characters' clarity and confusion helps Curran & Co.'s unexpected, occasionally heavy-handed fumblings toward examining spiritual emptiness find purchase.
2. Mr. De Niro fails to make anything about his miserable character poignant, and Mr. Norton's overwrought intensity borders on hysteria. The desired moral dilemma never arrives.
3. Thick with moral ambiguity, Stone proves to be a character drama that confuses heavy brow-furrowing for an insightful dissection of several ethically slippery individuals.
4. [A] hooey-heavy prison-and-faith drama.
5. One of those films that revels in despair and monotony, just another 'bad things happen, people are miserable' piece for actors who want to show how downbeat they can be.
6. Not to pigeonhole anyone, but it is hard to imagine the man behind the creative and charming June Bug is also the writer who has delivered the pedestrian and mundane script here.
7. Stone, like director John Curran's previous work, never peaks in any way that could be conventionally described as satisfying.
8. At odds with its own lofty and base instincts, Stone ultimately channels neither compellingly.
9. Stone is thrilling for what we're left to ponder afterwards more than any suspense inherit in the interaction during it.
10. [De Niro] offers up a closed-off and downright bland turn that ensures that the viewer has exceedingly little invested in his character's plight.


question: Light and charming, Serendipity could benefit from less contrivances.

numbered reviews: 1. Its characters act as if they're slogging through an 85-minute screen exercise, not engaging in anything remotely resembling real life.
2. Enjoyable and often hilarious cat-and- mouse game with the fates.
3. Might just be the perfect date movie.
4. Serendipity returns us, if only for a couple of hours, to the Manhattan of our dreams.
5. The fluffy Serendipity may nauseate but its naivete is more than compensated by its snowy backdrops and slew of hysterical supporting players.
6. Defying logic and reason, Serendipity captures our hearts and makes us goners. Sounds like true love to me.
7. A lot of fun.
8. Serendipity plays with the fantasy of fate and destiny and romantic kismet with all the lightness and frivolity of a championship chess match.
9. The movie forces these two together without ever explaining why they should be together -- except that their faces are on the movie poster.
10. The most delightful date movie around right now.


question: With a magnificent performance by Paul Giamatti, Barney's Version offers much comedy and insight to the complexities of modern romance.

numbered reviews: 1. Paul Giamatti gives a strong, multilayered performance of a selfish, but not uncommon man.
2. Barney's candor, free spirit and giant heart - which may actually be bigger than his liver - are eventually intoxicating.
3. The movie, much like your own life, is best enjoyed when you don't know exactly what happens next.
4. There are so many wonderful moments in this tumultuous film that leaves us with an unexpected tone
5. Paul Giamatti once again bringing sweetness, compassion and lovability to a miserable cad of a character is a beautiful thing to see.
6. It's a breezy and charming film in all, well-acted, playful and filled with real joie de vivre.
7. Director Richard J. Lewis seems at ease with the sprawling, shambling shape of "Barney's Version," which digresses and meanders and then, suddenly, pulling sharply into focus.
8. The performances are superlative, as is much of the film's Jewish flavor. The ham is barely noticeable.
9. The title character of Barney's Version left me wishing someone would give this unrelenting boor a boa constrictor for a necktie.
10. Giamatti's performance earned him the Golden Globe for Best Actor in a Musical or Comedy, and he certainly deserved the honor over weak competition. What isn't so clear is why this film was thrust into the Comedy category in the first place.


question: Aimless storytelling undermines the gripping, unsettling subject of this film.

numbered reviews:
1. It's horrifying (and R-rated) if not utterly relentless; it sucks your breath away, perhaps too much.
2. As enveloping as it is darkly cautionary!
3. This well-told and solidly acted story of his rise and fall is not a pretty sight, but, as with a car wreck, it is riveting nevertheless. It is almost impossible to look away.
4. A movie to slit your wrist to.
5. Permanent Midnight offers nothing we haven't seen before.
6. Pick it up for Ben Stiller's sake--a great first dramatic role.
7. Wicked sense of humor!
8. The movie gets credit for not making the high life seem colorful or funny.
9. Rollicking! A high-energy adaptation!
10. Witty!