A disjointed series of scenes, some quite funny; none, not one, poignant – and that in a story about a Parkinson's sufferer. It feels like TV: things happen because they have to happen at a certain time, not because the characters have put them into motion. Thus, Jake must meet Anne, learn about her disease, face her doubt about him, deal with her leaving him, go to rescue her – all this because that's what the story should do. But the scenes between the two of them are just like a well-acted acting class-type escapades, with Jake very good and Anne always a little over the top. They, the scenes, don't add up to anything satisfying.
Zwick can't quite get the feature thing down. All his movies lack a real resonance; they don't hold together as a whole. You don't feel you've seen a real story because he understands writing and directing scenes but he does not understand that plotting is an emotional thread that builds into something more than just the addition of one beat on another. He simply cannot develop a satisfying feature script. His movies are like watching a very long trailer.
Zwick can't quite get the feature thing down. All his movies lack a real resonance; they don't hold together as a whole. You don't feel you've seen a real story because he understands writing and directing scenes but he does not understand that plotting is an emotional thread that builds into something more than just the addition of one beat on another. He simply cannot develop a satisfying feature script. His movies are like watching a very long trailer.