Unsatisfying
Excellent acting, empty story, and ultimately unsatisfying.
shareI agree on the excellent acting and disagree on your other points.
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MovieChat Forums > Sydney (1997) Discussion > Unsatisfying
Unfortunately I have to agree. First half of the movie was very promising but the second half very disappointing. That second half felt as though it was written in about 15 minutes. The acting and the directing weren't bad at all but the film is let down by a poor screenplay.
Fortunately all of Paul Thomas Anderson's films after this one were great. So at least this film was very useful for training skills that he used later on in his career.
One of Anderson’s best imo.
shareI get OP's points but I like it better than some of his films (like Inherent Vice) and wish he had just made it a bit longer to give us some idea on where the characters have been and where they're headed. The aimless aspect is the only thing that lets it down a bit and makes it seem somewhat like a student film, as he's since become the master of making enormous films all built around a theme or metaphor. The best way I could describe it would be like a movie about a two hour trip to a theme park- not boring or unpleasant in and of itself, but like the journey to a larger destination we're not privy to.
shareThe ending was definitely the best part of the film. In fact, nothing all that interesting happens until about the last 30 minutes of the film.
I can't say I'm unsatisfied though. That ending more than makes up for the rest of the movie. I got to give it 6.3 out of 10. Without that ending though, it would be like a 5.3 out of 10. I think the issue is, it's never revealed as to why Sydney is helping John so much, of course we find out later on but even at that point, there is still no clear reason why he feels the need to help him. A prequel for this movie would be great, it would answer a lot of questions about his reasons why he feels the need to help John.
Hard8 does kind of remind me of that Matt Dillon movie, The Big Town. TBT also features gambling as part of the plot. However, I have to say, Hard8 is a better film for sure. BT really wasn't that good but it might be worth a look if you like this movie. It has a few interesting parts in it. The gambling scenes are actually quite good in Big T. Matt Dillon puts on quite a show when he's rolling the dice.... and it captures the time period (the 50s) really well.
Anyhow... pretty good movie but I still say PTA's best film is Magnolia.