Stylistic. Tick. Got it. As shallow and pointless as a musical. Okay. Which is why the dialogue is stilted and weird.The songs? Well, there aren't any really. All the music is recycled material, sung badly. And, quite importantly, none of these snippets of recycled crap lasts for more than a minute (sometimes less). So, it doesn't work as a musical. Is it stylistic and funny? Well, I 'got the joke' early on, when everyone was talking about sex and awful lot. So, I got a kick out of dirty words.Characters? As shallow as musical, (but one without the music). The worst part of the film is the final act, in which all the sex talk (and the crappy musical snippets) stop, and we veer uncomfortably into tragedy. Which doesn't work, because everything was so shallowly presented. Effectively, the 'stylism' tap was turned off, or the 'joke' stopped. So the terrible last act kills the entire movie (which was pretty stupid from the off). There is a ridiculous glitzy cast, none of which say or do anything. For example, there's a particularly egregious cameo by Christopher Walken, who walks on, talks bollocks, and then shows up a couple more times to talk more bollocks. This is Walken playing 'that Walken guy', which I guess earns him money.Plot points? Wafer-thin, but the relationship between an older man and an extremely over-sexed woman might have been interesting, but that might just be because the dirty talk was the only interesting thing in the movie, which speaks volumes about the movie. Of course, they killed that in the final act. So, there's about ten movies here, and none of them are any good.

This is one of those seriously underrated cinematic gems. Romance and Cigarettes with a misleading IMDb score of 6/10? John Turturro has mined gold with his actors in this film. Mr. Turturro is one of the Yale School of Drama's (MFA) most brilliant products, and this film is a testament to that fact. Watch this one!

I was looking forward to this film with its great cast and the quirky lip synching song sequences. Instead it was the crudest and most horrible dialogue of any film I have seen and this spoilt the enjoyment. The song sequences were good but could have been better. Not in the same league as Pennies from Heaven. Does this screenwriter have a problem with women that he could be so crude about them in male conversations. I wondered whether Kate Winslett, with a strange northern accent wondered why she had agreed to it when she was given the script. Goodness knows what Eddie Izzard was doing in it. Shame that the writer/director was given the chance to be so self indulgent.

"Romance and Cigarettes" is an outrageous musical about the working class. It takes some getting used to, but it's well worth it, thanks to all of the talent in front of the camera and behind the scenes. It's risky, it's off the wall, it's bold, and at times, it's a riot. And you can't beat the soundtrack or the dancing policemen.James Gandolfini plays Nick Murder (who else), a cheating husband married to Susan Sarandon and involved with the nearly unrecognizable Kate Winslet, a red-headed slut. They have three daughters: Constance (Mary-Louise Parker), Rosebud (Aida Turturro, Gandolfini's sister in the Sopranos; Turturro is one year younger than Gandolfini and Mary-Louise Parker is three years younger), and Baby (Mandy Moore), who have their own romance problems. The cast also includes Steve Buscemi, Bobby Carnavale, Eddie Izzard, and Christopher Walken. The characters all break into song with no notice, and the music includes "Piece of My Heart," "This is a Man's World," "Delilah," "Trouble," and many others.The film chronicles the choice Nick Murder must make as he grapples with his life.Very quirky and not for everyone, but some really marvelous performances, great music, and both fun and poignant moments.