robertmaybeth I liked all three main characters in this simultaneously lightly drawn but very serious and dramatic film... As Paul, Fiennes is, well, fine as the main character (who's determined to swim the Hudson river, for a very special and somewhat scary reason). His two friends, who accompany Paul in a "safety boat" are also very well cast and the three have an instant chemistry, and a finely woven narrative that makes it seem as if they might have known each other for years. Justin Kirk ("weeds") provides the character Jeff, the perfect light touch to our very serious protagonist. Jeff is smart, pragmatic, caring, and sensible and we find him doing many of the things we ourselves would be doing in a similar situation - but ultimately we never find out if any of it works. Elisabeth Reaser (the "Twilight" series) as Liz, also provides the perfect counterpoint to Jeff's light character by seemingly matching Paul's, really very serious dilemma with all the concern any friend would be feeling. Even though Paul's in a self-created situation, neither friend attempts to seriously talk him out of feeling as he does, but they seem to do their best to make life as inviting as possible while they are with him - especially Liz, who goes the extra mile to help Paul and hopefully make him see the light..By the end of the film, the characters are ready to see a conclusion, and so are we - we've toughed it out for over 90 minutes watching the dynamic and we are anxious to see some sort of pay-off with Paul, good or bad. But the failure of this movie is the ambivalent ending. The fundamental question of the story - will Paul really kill himself? Is posed in practically every scene and is an essential, perhaps the ONLY point of the story. Yet, it's never answered. I feel the ending was a mistake and should have been handled differently... we, the viewer, ultimately feel cheated out of our conclusion to the story, and the ending makes us feel baffled, perplexed, confused and even a little duped.

tishco I love quiet, thoughtful movies. This is a quiet thoughtful movies and I couldn't connect with to it. Dark, slow, repugnant characters, flat, static acting, annoying music, there is nothing to like about this movie. I even snoozed through some of it.Mary Tyler Moore is usually a shining light but even her ugly character is nothing but morose and deadpan.Maybe it is the topic of the movie. Depression and lost love can be a dark hole to go down with nowhere to escape.That is how this movie felt to me. I only had a twinge of sadness in the last couple of minutes to think of the hopelessness of it all and the lost time watching this movie.

zif ofoz i watched this movie start to finish - as i do with 99.9% of all movies i choose to see. this movie has a lot going for it and a lot going to ruin it.the characters - paul, katie, and jeff come across as spoiled trust fund kids that have nothing to do but "deal with their emotions"! paul is totally unbelievable as the grief stricken widower (or whatever he is). paul is just shallow and myopic and completely unconvincing from start to finish. katie adds nothing to the story. and jeff comes across as the only level headed character but drops that element mid story. pathetic! but the cinematography along the hudson river is beautiful and spellbinding. if the 'actors' could be deleted this movie it would be a 10 star flick.if you want to see some beautiful scenes of the hudson river valley this is a great choice. and the soundtrack is wonderful. but all spoiled by a pointless story and bad acting and numb dialog.

mgndyer Overall a good movies. The story slowly built as we learned more and more about each of the characters. The movie was a bit boring at some points as what felt like half the movie. This was probably because of the numerous montages of boats and swimming on the Hudson river. While this was beautiful and the music was generally good it made me loose interest during those sequences. But I found the story to be moving and the acting was well done. I particularly like Justin Kirk. He brought a lot of much needed humor to the film that dealt with some really heavy stuff. Over all a good watch if you want a quiet reflective movie. I would recommend it to pretty much anyone.