08 August 2003

Oh yes, Gigli. Haiwen will no doubt contest everything I say here, but I might as well be honest: it's overlong and overwritten, and it's slack in places, and there are long stretches where nothing at all seems to be going right…but once you accept that the movie is going to run the whole "cute retard" thing into the ground and isn't going to make a damned bit of sense, it's generally pleasing, especially in the second hour. Which is to say: it's never boring, it looks and sounds great, and it contains a handful of juicy, juicy acting moments and memorable bursts of violence and comedy. I'm not saying that it's a great movie, or even a good one, and I'm certainly not recommending that you rush out and see it tonight...but I certainly don't think it deserved the reception it's received. Bad movies are always boring, but Gigli never is, and it's more memorable than a lot of conventionally tasteful movies I could name. There's something heady about its sudden shifts of tone, and I eventually came to feel a vague sort of affection for its willingness to make odd detours and its refusal to go anywhere in particular: as I tried to explain to Haiwen last night, Gigli sometimes feels like Punch-Drunk Love made not on purpose.

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