A two fisted double movie review

Let's get one thing straight, Jessica Biel is one heck of a good looking woman. She's smokin' hot, seriously, she goes to 15 on the 1 to 10 hotness scale. She buries the needle in the red on the hotness meter.

But having said that, I'll say she's not the greatest actress in the world. I didn't think she was bad in this film, I just thought that she was out of her league. And I say that even after saying that Colin Firth needs to pay back what ever they paid him to do this movie. He was awful in it. He was supposed to be shell shocked, world weary, and jaded but he came off as brain damaged and petulant.

Over all this film is 'meh.' If you like pretty British women who are icy cold and remote, then this is your film. If you like staring at smokin' hot Jessica Biel, then this is your film. Otherwise, skip it.

I really liked this film until the final few minutes then I hated it.

Annette Benning, who never looked better on film, plays an aging actress who has to deal with a husband who sleeps around, a creepy business partner, a conniving young actress rival, and a young lover who may or may not be all he says he is. Benning plays her role as the world weary actress perfectly until the final moments.

I was rooting for Benning's character to win out in the end against her various rivals, and she did, but the way she did it ruined the whole thing for me. I come from a performance background, I did plays and worked in many kinds of theatre and I did improv comedy with a group of guys for many years and the one thing that is ingrained in me is to not humiliate cast members onstage. It's bush league and it's wrong to take out your personal issues with your fellow improv group members or fellow actors while on stage in front of an audience. And that's what Benning character did in this movie. She set up and humiliated her female rival, her husband, and her young male lover in front of her adoring audience. When I saw that that was going to be the big pay off and that her character was to be celebrated and feted for being an asshole and humiliating people in front of an audience my jaw dropped and all the good will I had towards Benning's character and the movie in general evaporated. I wanted to slap her character, the writer, and the director for ruining the film for me.

Despite Benning being great for 9/10th's of this film and despite the presence of the insanely cute Lucy Punch as Benning's female acting rival, I can't recommend this film at all. It seriously pissed me off.