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Truly terrible. The music and soundscapes are absurdly annoying. The camera work is ridiculous - shaking all the time for no reason. The set up is hard to follow since the timeline keeps jumping around. This serves to confuse the already dumb storyline set up. While the cast should have revealed a cohesive cadre of talent, it does not. The director never lets any actor have more than a few seconds at a time. All in all, this is essentially unwatchable. Of course the original book and movie were fantastic. This is a pathetic attempt to add coattails to a previous success. Swing and a horrible miss.

I like the cast and the acting of the lead players is good. Meagan Tandy, Wes Brown and Brely Evans are natural. The script is really lacking. The characters as written are frequently childish, shallow and lack any nuance. What could have been an interesting story is just painfully predictable.

The music is annoying and utterly pedestrian. It lacks any semblance of thematic coherency.

Directing is poor in that we are spoon fed everything. The whole production feels like a slightly darker television after school special.

Things do pick up a hair in act III. For just a moment it feels like we might be building towards something. Unfortunately, the poor man's version of an actual soundtrack gets louder and becomes almost comedically distracting. For the final climax, we are treated to an anti-climax. Just plain bad writing.

On another positive side , the hair and makeup is expertly executed. More productions should follow this realistic and nuanced effort.

Great acting. I think a very weak script, but if you love studies in misery, this one might be for you. Unfortunately this movie was listed as a "twisted comedy". Twisted, yes. Comedy, no, not really. I guess some people currently view hopelessness as hilarious. I saw one review that said it was a "real movie about real people", I sure hope not. It's a movie about extraordinary drinking, cynicism and crime as a way of life. The idea that people are so hung up on their provincial identity is, thankfully, not an especially American concept. Hoffman, and all of the actors do an outstanding job of quiet desperation. There are some great characters in the movie but they don't get the lines they deserve. The colors are muted to go with the dismal backdrop of this town that takes some pride in its small minded rumor mongering. The use of music in the film is appropriately understated and there are a couple of nice moments. The photography is ok, there are a few nice shots.