Presented at Sundance 2008 film festival, the movie, directed by Geoffrey Haley is an impressive drama with a dark subject and some brilliant acting, especially from the part of Ray Romano (used here, effectively, in contre-emploi).
The director worked as camera operator for American Beauty (he shot the dance of the paper bag in the wind) and for Six Feet Under and it shows throughout the movie (the dark subject, brilliant black humor).
In short, the subject is as follows: Evan (Wes Bentley, perfect choice for the part) is a freelancer dealing with people who lost their last hope and who are trying to commit suicide. He writes for them their last goodbye note, in an artistic and poetic way. At the funeral of one of his clients, he meets Charlotte (Winona Ryder), the sister of the deceased and they begin a curious relationship. The most interesting part, in my opinion, is that of Abel, played by Ray Romano, a composer of „waiting music” and one of Evan’s clients. He also has the most hilarious lines in the entire movie (for example, talking about small babies, he states „Just because they are short and chubby, doesn’t mean they are not assholes”).
The movie is brilliant up to the last 5 minutes. Unfortunately the ending is a disaster, it is like totally another movie. A bad one. I think it is typical for the Americans to come up with such lame endings. Had the movie been made in Europe, the story had been different. Please don’t watch the last minutes and press STOP after Winona leaves with the giraffe. You won’t regret it if you enjoy great endings...
8 stars out of 10