Amateur

At times hilarious and at others mind numbingly boring and dull, this is certainly something different. Your milage with the affected acting, long pauses, deadpan delivery, and scattershot plot may vary, but it's usually interesting. Check it out if you want something off the beaten path.

Wonderfully aloof writer-director Hal Hartley hits a speedbump with this heavy-handed comic oddity about eccentrics, losers and assorted misfits. Isabelle Huppert plays a former nun who is trying her hand at writing sexual fiction; Martin Donovan is an amnesiac (groan) she picks up in a diner. Hartley, who had his biggest success with this formula via 1991's dryly goofy and charming "Trust", is too self-conscious this time out, and the results are twee. Several funny lines cannot compensate for an ugly look and an overall lack of interest in these characters. Supporting cast of crazies includes Parker Posey, but "Amateur" skirts a dead-eyed blandness at every turn. * from ****

Hal Hartley where have you been all my movie-loving life? This was the sort of movie-watching experience which required my calling my best friend and telling her about it, as I would any noteworthy experience. Yes, the ending was dismal... yet perfect! So much about redemption: This was clear if one remembers Thomas's feet at the beginning of the movie, and then Thomas's feet at the end. At that point, I saw the (one of) point to the story. I enjoyed the clipped dialogue, the clarity, AND the ironic absurdity. The story was not meant to be reality-driven, but limited to the raison d'etre of Thomas and the other characters: as in a dream, but not. Discovering it was a marvelous channel-surfing accident. Now I must do a search on Hal Hartley. Check out his portfolio, so to speak. Rating 9/10.