Basically any year Ben Kingsley is in a film he should win best actor. Impressive performer.
*SPOILERS*
I wanted to like it. I tried to like it, tried to figure out what the writer was trying to say, but could only come up with "open your mail".
No bad guys? Cop who drinks on duty, misuses the power of his badge and cheats on his wife? Surely he's a bad guy.
I couldn't empathize with Jennifer Connelly's character either. Whiney, spoiled, thoughtless bitch...what's to empathize with? Gets given a house, but can't even follow through on clearing up a tax bill. We're supposed to feel sorry for her because she's an alcoholic? Yeah, supposed to feel sorry for her being an alcoholic again later when her boyfriend pressures her to drink some wine by having it at the table. Someone's who's so devestated about her own husband leaving that she turns to a bottle, right? So jump in the sack with someone else's husband. Great job. Meanwhile don't bother getting a job, just live in your car and let someone else take care of you some more. Heck once she got the guy and some booze there wasn't any reason for her to want the house back other than to avoid having to tell her mom she'd lost it.
Now if it was billed as a story about how some people have such a talent for turning everything they touch into misery, I might have liked it. But I went into it thinking it was a conflict between two faultless sides and that's what the struggle was supposed to be. There was no parallel, between the sides. On one side you have the above, on the other a guy who's working hard to protect and provide for his family. Felt tricked by the reviewer for giving the impression there's any balance to the sides, or reason to empathize with one, and am somewhat amazed that's the impression so many others come out of it with. Other than being cute, what defense does Connelly's character have for anything?
*END SPOILER ALERT*