karah-saidi Cheesy. Lukewarm acting. Amateur script. Painful to watch and not even sure why we wasted the time to finish it. Metacritic score and reviews were spot on.

pranderson063095 The movie has not been received well by the critics. Not surprising at all. The public, on the other hand, likes the movie. This is a movie that tends to cause one to overthink it when it's structure is pretty obvious. This is where it falls apart. A story about an author who writes a story about and author who breaks the one rule no author should break when he steals the work of another unpublished author. Working backwards, the movie works until it fails to resolve the top level story. Leaving very obscure clues is not enough. Having a character without any connected background or confirmation of why they are in the story is the Missed it by "This Much." Open ended is fine but unresolved is not. Two of the three stories are profound but they rest on a shaky foundation that the viewer must now decide for themselves. "At some point, you have to choose between life and fiction. The two are very close, but they never actually touch." says Clay. Yes, we must decide whether it is life or fiction but, yes, the two do touch. Who is who is almost explained but not quite. The redemption which Rory seeks for his sins is obscure and the writers make it so because they do not want to be accused of being trite or cliche. Well in this one part, they are. The two inner stories would hold up just fine without the smoke that Daniella brings to the movie. In fact, remove all of the scenes in Clay's condo because they really do nothing for the story. It does nothing to conclude that Daniella's objective is to bed the famous author she has a crush on. We can be thankful that although she almost succeeds, she doesn't, at least not in this fiction. The critics who blast the movie because of its lack of literary acclaim are typical of critics who see only their version of the way things should be. Perhaps the fact that the final resolution is not so open-ended as it is simply confusing and leaves gaping holes in the story. We find 90% of the movie profound and enjoyable and actually very realistic. It's the 10% at the end in Clay's roost that we are left dangling without sufficient clue. The baseball is not enough.

StrayKat How can a man move forward when he stole something to gain approval from his wife? How does that affect the relationship, as well as his own identity and self-esteem? How can it be fixed? I loved that the questions were open-ended and unresolved in the movie, because those questions are unresolved in real life. And I thought it was interesting how the Old Man subtly cursed the young author. He said the young author couldn't fix his error, that when he stole the book, he took the pain with it. He was foretelling the pain that the author would have with his wife, how his stealing it would make him lose her just as the Old Man lose his own wife.I might be the only one who saw the metaphorical Biblical parallel in the movie, and it may not have been intended by the authors of the film, because I didn't see it mentioned anywhere else.I loved all of the layers of this movie. I think it was one of the best movies I've ever seen.

rs-20610 Loved the movie. It is very deep and thoroughly engaging. Loved every minute of it. The 3 layers of the movie are beautifully presented. It is definitely a very neat story with excellent screen play. I definitely did not expect the end. The suspense has been woven in very well. I also really liked the message that the story tells, in the words on the old man, when he reflects on the reasons for his pain in life.Amazing performance by all the actors.Surprised the movie was rated bad on rotten tomatoes. Guess, critiques' judgments are not always right. The movie definitely deserves an 8 or more.