Laurel Canyon (2003)

This movie is a mess. The story of a young couple tempted to stray has been done much better in other hands. Casting is odd, with Brits playing Americans and an Israeli, an American playing a Brit, all of it quite unconvincing. (Could Kate Beckinsale please come to life occasionally?). The enigmatic ending probably frustrates those who like this movie; I found it to be the only interesting plot device. The eponymous location isn't given its due, which is a shame. The LA neighborhood offers endless cinematic possibilities yet we're shown mostly its cracked pavement. What makes this movie worth seeing is the remarkable performance by Frances McDormand. She steals the show with no apparent effort. Making it look so easy is very hard to do, and she does it to perfection. Kudos to this versatile actress.

the virtue of movie - the cast. Frances Mc Dormand,Christian Bale, Natascha McElhone. ball of situations, crumbs of humor, slices of Californian life style and music industry. heart - self definition out of others but as product of them. axis - character of Chistian Bale - scale of facts, words and strange world who gives measure of life. story is not original but solution is special. the pool is, in this case, not only a scene but one character, refuge, root, piece of unfinished relationship and kind of solitude. a good film but in strange form. ball of neurosis and fragile escapes, love as mist and place of the other in your existence, its end is just beginning. That is all !

For some reason I knew exactly what was gonna happen after the first 15 minutes... I predicted all of it scene by scene...What prompted me to borrow this was the fact that it had Christian Bale in it, and secondly judging from the cover it looked like it had some MILF love triangle thing going on. This film was part of the official selection for the... Cannes, Sundannce, and Toronto Film Festivals (so it sez on th DVD cover)... guess they had to chose some crap... while its not the worst of the worst, it did indeed suck...5.2/10.If you like Christian Bale, and swinging rock MILFs getting it on with your girlfriend, then it's worth a watch, but only if you have absolutely nothing to do, and/or can't find a better film...

Strange to read a lot of glowing positive comments and then see the low scores... - Anyhow this erotically charged little drama is beautifully shot on location in L.A. and seems like a pinpoint accurate look at the consequences of growing up with an affluent hippie parent. The parent in question played to perfection by McDormand. An almost unrecognizable Christian Bale is unusually subdued as her extremely controlled son, who has more than a little trouble connecting with his WASP MD and PhD studying girlfriend (Beckinsale). She in turn thrives and loosens up when they are forced to live with his mother the record producer and various types from the west-coast rock environment, while he tries to control the advances of a colleague at the hospital where he is a resident. And don't get mad about the ambiguous ending - if it had ended any other way you wouldn't have got the chance to think about it would you ?