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Napoleon Dynamite (D) »

An actors' movie about two adulturous couples. All four of the stars are very strong in this but I'm always captivated by Naomi Watts and Mark Ruffalo, two of the best actors in movies right now. I almost want them to be in every movie that comes out, they're so good.

It's also good to see Peter Krause in something other than Six Feet Under. He's quite the arrogant dick in this, a change from beleagured nice guy Nate Fisher. Laura Dern is also good and plays an interesting character. She seems very haggard in this though and a little too old to be married to Mark Ruffalo.

My problem with the film is that it gets kind of exploitive at times. When it starts out, it teases you by showing the two couples interacting in a way that you don't know at first who is with who. That I was intrigued by. But the movie continues to tease you like this with other plot aspects. One being a scene involving Mark Ruffalo's kids and a cliff that was done simply to make you uncomfortable and doesn't make much sense otherwise.

Posted at December 30, 2004 12:55 AM