With a simple, yet elegantly interwoven storyline, SINCE YOU'VE BEEN GONE entertains with comedy, emotion, and the subtle brilliance of David Schimmer.Following a clique of high school friends around their 10 year reunion, the film takes up complex issues that include personal success, fleeting popularity, the loneliness and confusion of adulthood, and mixes them with 'kick me' signs, re-kindled romance, and an 80's cover band.Familiar and unfamiliar actors give several perfectly nuanced and superb performances that add an unforgettable quaintness to the film. (In fact, these are the only major roles for main characters Heidi Stillman, Thom Cox, and David Catlin.) Cameos by John Stewart, Molly Ringwald, Marisa Tomei, a post-plastic surgery Jennifer Grey, and Schwimmer's mom also add to the light-hearted humor.Between directing this film, his performance in KISSING A FOOL and his role in BAND OF BROTHERS, it's apparent that Schwimmer is nothing short of a genius (a fact recognized only by a handful of people, including Larry David).A must own film.

I taped this from TV, so didn't have to pay a penny to see it. I thought it worked as a series of scenes, held together really only by the fact that everyone was there for the reunion, and alternating scenes with the main characters with little vignettes focusing on minor ones and quirks of character. So it was a bit sit-com'ish: who cares? It wasn't intended to be some major drama. There were many amusing moments, and one couldn't help feeling pleased that the doctor reconciled with his wife, the woman desperate to find someone did meet up with the man who wanted to see her, the unemployed man got offered a job after almost inadvertently putting a lot of people in touch with each other and also began a relationship, that the singer got to sing his song (apparently taken over and turned into a hit for someone else by a music company that ripped him off) the way he wanted and was applauded for it, also that the obnoxious class president, who seemed to be using the whole reunion to get work for his family's businesses, got his. But not "heartwarming" all the way, no: the tricks of Lara Flynn Boyle's character were sometimes unpleasantly vicious, and the last was a discordant note in the otherwise fairly upbeat ending (though it could probably have been sorted out eventually). We were evidently meant to see her as an unpleasant practical joker from way back (references to class outings in which some disaster had happened), but never shown why. Romy and Michelle's High School reunion was better, yes - but this wasn't so bad.

Since You've Been Gone is a relatively decent film with a cast of relative unknowns with the exception of a few. Kevin is a doctor who attends his ten year high school reunion with his wife and best friend and to face the trauma of an incident that happened at his graduation. An unemployed, balding man and his psycho friend visit where they come in contact with a plane crash survivor/speaker who has a thing for the balding man. A woman in search of a man only to find herself in a funnily painful injury. David Schwimmer plays the class president, a conceited, quick witted jackass whom the psycho friend has a vendetta against. Lara Flynn Boyle is funny as a total psycho who falls for the psycho friend. Jon Stewart, Marisa Tomei, and Jerry Springer make cameos in the film. David Schwimmer is good as the guy who always finds himself prone to insulting signs on his back. Kevin comes to realize why the incident happened in the first place because of how he is towards people. Since You've Been Gone is definitely a lot stranger and a lot more offbeat than you might think.

This movie lacks any sort of direction what so ever. It has no plot, the acting is lame, the characters are lame, the jokes are lame. It is one of the top 10 worst movies I have ever seen. If you like movies that aren't funny and have no plot, then go rent this movie tonight.