I have always been a fan of Christian Slater so I might be basis. I was skeptical with the talking fish but Slater and Cuthbert shined bright. For once there wasn't a twist that I saw coming from the beginning of the movie. Slater shows the mental state of someone that is lost in a world that he created. This is a must watch movie and I'm not saying it's the best movie but it is well worth the amount of admission.

I cannot tell you the plot of this movie. I am uncertain what happened, and if I told you a version, you would likely not believe me.Christian Slater plays Bob Maconel, a mousy, picked-on middle aged man. He hallucinates that his goldfish talk to him and bully him. He hallucinates/imagines killing his co-workers.You never know what is his imagination, his hallucination or twists of the screenwriters' mad fantasy.He deals with sadistic bullies for co-workers. One is female, who enjoys coming on to him, then suddenly crying out sexual harassment. I wanted a particularly sticky end for her, but was unsatisfied. Another, the man at the next desk, goes postal.One character is Venessa, a beautiful young woman paralysed from the neck down. She is a self-centred power tripper and tries to force Bob to help her commit suicide. We never know if she can be trusted or if she is just a scheming manipulator who uses Bob as a "spoon" to care for her.You see so many versions of events, you have to put on hold your decision of whether what you just saw was real.The problem with this movie is has no proper protagonist. Bob is just a colourless, mumbling dishrag. It is hard to care one way or the other what happens to him.I thought it odd that no one asked Bob why he had a loaded gun in his desk at the office, with which he shot the worker who went postal. Perhaps in the USA this is common. The only question was why he did not shoot sooner.Venessa explained the clasp on her bra to Bob, her caregiver, who had to bathe, bum wipe and spoon feed for the last few months. Surely by now he would already thoroughly understand female clothing.Much of the plot is Pythonesque. Bizarre things happen and everyone keeps a perfectly straight face and pretends they are ordinary.One amusing scene is Venessa ordering Bob around commanding him not to be "weak" not to let people push him around.The movie just seemed to meander after a shotgun start. I lost interest about half way through.

"He was a quiet man" is a astoundingly well written, decently directed little movie with an amazing performance by Christian Slater as an outsider and weirdo who's just about to crack. By now, Slater should have redeemed himself for whatever Uwe Boll- flick or Hollow Man- Sequel he did in the past and should rise again to the top of the Hollywood elite. After this and Bobby he really deserves it. This is definitely the first picture I've seen where Slater's character is really challenging, and he manages to show the audience a flawless performance beyond all criticism. Seeing him in Mindhunter and Alone in the Dark, one would have never guessed that he's still got that powerful gift of creating a character that you can appreciate and understand from the very beginning. The great screenplay helped a lot, I guess, but nevertheless this is the rise of Christian Slater. Please recognize that.

I'm only writing this review to warn those who think a movie with William H. Macy and Christian Slater can't be all bad. It is.The only reason I'm not giving this garbage 1 star is because I've fallen asleep around an hour into it. So while the film experience itself was a torture, it did lead to a peaceful state of my mind in the end. It must have been a defensive reaction of my brain, as I wasn't even tired. The most interesting part of that evening was the plot summary, and ever since I had read it and decided to watch this particular movie, things were going steadily and continuously downhill. And I don't mean just boring; think incoherent, intelligence-insulting, frustrating, annoying to the point you're getting aggressive. Seriously, the DVD of this movie would be a riot if it included a video game allowing you to smash the characters across the face with a baseball bat or packing Elisha Cuthbert's constantly whining mouth with hot lead. All this to the incredibly lame movie soundtrack that stops suddenly once you finish off the main boss - the composer - in a long, exhausting beatdown. Now that's entertainment.Unfortunately when I'm writing this, the interaction with this movie is limited to turning the volume down or removing the DVD out of the drive. While the former helps through the soundtrack and Elisha's bitching, the movie still inflicts torment on so many levels you'll be wishing you had slept through it too...