Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #9905 in DVD
• Released on: 2008-02-04
• Rating: Suitable for 18 years and over
• Format: PAL
• Number of discs: 1
• Running time: 188 minutes

Synopsis
Using the short stories of Raymond Carver as a springboard, American maverick director Robert Altman weaves a tapestry of interlocking tales set against the seedy backdrop of contemporary middle-class Los Angeles. Tracking the various stages of denial, rage, and despair in the lives of several couples--a philandering cop and his masochistic spouse (Tim Robbins and Madeline Stowe); a helicopter pilot who gets revenge on his ex by trashing her house (Peter Gallagher and Frances McDormand); a man and woman whose perfect life falls apart when they lose their son in a hit-and-run accident (Bruce Davison and Andie MacDowell); a pool cleaner who listens in mounting frustration to his wife performing phone sex each day while tending her brood of children (Chris Penn and Jennifer Jason Leigh); a wealthy couple who are haunted by an incident from the past (Matthew Modine and Julianne Moore); an aging jazz singer and her suicidal daughter (Annie Ross and Lori Singer); an alcoholic limo driver and his waitress wife (Tom Waits and Lily Tomlin)--Altman reveals their common threads of familial dysfunction and marital discord in the unforgiving glare of the Southern California sunlight. The result is a sweeping motion picture that also stands as an important sociological artefact of late 20th century Los Angeles life.

Customer Reviews

Long but worth it
This movie is absolutely brilliant. You'll watch it and not realise it to a few days later, but the way the stories and lives are woven makes it a gritty and engaging film. There are so many great actors in the film that give class performances that singling out a singling person would be wrong. YES it is very long and YES at times it seems like it is going nowhere, but at the end you'll appreciate it so much, it's like watching 12 movies at once. Probably the 1st and greatest portamento movie of all time, often copied (tarantino) and never bettered. BUY IT!

one of the most boring and depressing experiences I have ever had
OK it's stylish, OK it's got a cracking cast and it's well acted, but this is simply the most boring film I have ever seen, nothing happens - honestly - nothing, there is just no coherent story line to link it all together and the entire 3 hours+ (and trust me, it felt longer) was like a series of completley unrelated, depressing and, ultimately, pointless vignettes.

This is Altman at his self-obsessed, self-indulgent worst. Avoid it, unless you've got far to much time on your hands and want to be made thoroughly depressed, confused and miserable.

And the music score has got to much jazz on it as well.

My brother says it's good
I haven't seen it. But my brother Simon says it's excellent. From The Other Opinionated Yorkshireman. (What, there are only two?)