Some scenes are brilliants by themselves and the performance of Ed Harris, James Franco, Amber Heard and Christian Slater are nice to watch. But the crime aspect/court scenes are not linked efficiently to the rest of the movie. It lacks something in the scenario or in the montage, and we can understand why Stephen Elliot (the original book author) was not satisfied with the results. It's not a great movie but it's interesting to see a reflection on memory, perception mixed in with Klonopin, Adderall and Vicodin. It showcase a real aspect of the human experience, it's that we modify our memories with time.

Stephen Elliott (Franco) is upset and embarrassed when he reads excerpts from his latest novel when Neil Elliott (Harris) shows up to let everyone know they are being played as he is not dead as his son writes about him. The father and son duel goes on and we in the audience are not sure who to believe about things that happened in Stephen's life as each makes a lot of sense. The beginning of this movie seemed to indicate we were in for another druggie movie and I almost shut this down. Then the TV on screen shows a murder trial courtroom scene and this captures Stephen's interest. Ours too. The father, Hans Reiser (Christian Slater), is accused of killing his wife and claims he did no such thing and that he always acted on the behalf of his kids. Stephen realizes that his father always claimed the same thing. Stephen believes he can prove his father wrong and tell the world the truth and get his writing career back on track. He gets Lana (Amber Heard) to help him get paperwork proving he was all the things his father said was not true. Later we learn that Stephen takes Adderall among other drugs. We knew about the other drugs, but not Adderall until now. Hmmm……I must say this time James Franco has a role that works for him as he invested himself completely. Kudos. As for Ed Harris, well, he does steal all the scenes his in. He is just that good. But wait ….. there is another actor who seems to command scenes, too, and that is Jim Parrack (Who?) who plays Roger, Stephen's boyhood friend. I'm sure we will see more of him in other movies. Keep an eye. Yes, there is a twist later on and I think we all knew what it would be. The question is will this revelation actually help Stephen? Should the Director have spent more time talking about the effects of Adderall or did the movie do this for us? Inquiring minds want to know. (7/10)Violence: Yes. Sex: Yes. . Nudity: Yes. Language: Yes.

Why medium rare? Because I like it better than well done. This movie hits too close to home for many of the reviewers I can tell. Problem is that they are living it or agree with the abusive bullying lifestyle. It makes me sick to see 4 and 5 stars out of 5 for so many stinkers and this one gets low ratings. This isn't the best movie but it isn't a waste of time. Great cast and it is well made. Make yourself a drink and a smoke if you like and watch this one with your dog on a rainy. This is a tale about a guy that hates himself and was raised by a parent that also hated himself thus the vicious cycle of self hate and low self esteem. How can we learn to see life in a better way? How do we rewire our brains from a lifetime of conditioning in an abusive environment. Not every movie ends like a fantasy that is personally gratifying. Why? Because people do not make as many happy endings. If you want that to change make some effing happy endings and stop breaking people in half. That goes for women and men. Stop if you aren't too broken to pull it off.

After hearing about (but not reading) the book I was a little excited for this film. Terrible let down. There is no real plot or even a narrative and I can't for the life of me understand why this gets placed under the Thriller genre. It is little more than a plodding collection of vignettes strung together with an inordinate number of slow-motion flashbacks. Seriously if just the flashbacks and montages were shown in realtime it would cut the runtime of this movie by half. Want to convey a memory of a happy family? Slow motion flashback of them kicking a ball in the yard. Angry family? Slow motion flashback of them yelling and punching. Repeat this over and over to fill the space where plot and character development would go. The "trial" component feels forced as an unnecessary element (maybe to convince us it's a thriller?). There isn't one relationship in this movie we ever actually care about and, as if to add insult to injury, the star seems to magically reconcile a lifetime of bad choices in the last ten minutes! Too bad this was a really bad vehicle for some otherwise good talent.