20 years later

I saw this in theaters in 2001 and I remember really liking it and being a sad ending/story. I had ranked it high on my list on IMDB. I guess it made an impression on me. I stumbled on the title on Kanopy recently and have been putting off watching it again, thinking it would probably be cheesy and not as good as I remembered in 2001 and maybe a waste of time. Well to my surprise it was even more of a tear-jerker than I remember. The acting was very good. Kline and Kristen Scott Thomas were superb (I adore KST) and have always liked Kline's roles in a number of movies too. I didn't know who Hayden Christensen was back then, but made the connection from Star Wars the 2nd watch. Kinda funny he was lambasted in Star wars for being emo, and funny he played a similar archetype in the beginning of this one. He was good too.

I read some of the criticisms of the various characters physical/sexual interactions and, they are a bit out of place in some cases, but I guess they provide some comic relief from the impending ending. Not enough to ruin the movie though. Maybe something to do with the overall theme of life/death and human connections/touch that is repeated among about every main character that interacts with each other, so I think the director had a reason. It's a "touching" movie in more ways than one I guess. Overall, it holds up pretty well. Not the usual genre I chose to watch, but still enjoyable, albeit sad.

Kevin Kline's character and some of his predicaments with career/relationships are very relatable. This movie makes you wonder how you would handle his situation.