Katrina This film affected me on a deep visceral level. I saw this movie at the Seattle International Film Festival and would love to see it again. Robin Wright's performance captured the strength of openness and vulnerability. Hedda's question to William Hurt's character, "Do you love me enough yet?" was quite haunting. And to her mother, when she asked why Hedda hadn't told her about her pain (if I remember correctly), "because you aren't strong enough," poignantly portrays a soul that has been emotionally used and abused from a young age and learned to take on others' emotional needs at her own expense - especially a woman who has true empathy.

elshikh4 AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH !!! Well .. now we can talk ..Despite my hatred for the shown type of human (Hedda Amerson/Robin Wright Penn) as a tenderhearted girl whom never turns to seek revenge on the man whom she loved even though he drove her to committing suicide (2 times !) as his first wife, and hit his second wife to the extent that he paralyzed her !!, and then hit his third wife till he killed her !!! And our very good-natured girl just can't even hate him a bit !??? Despite my hatred for that, I hated and hated and hated the way that this story had been told by! The movie tried to be as dissimilar as its main character, so the writer/director (Erin Dignam) didn't put this series of confessions (justifications for her absolute love) as a long sequences in the plot of a psychotherapy's movie but made such a drama with a sense of thrill by transporting it to the courtroom instead of the psychiatrist's room. Yet even by that way this very movie had no way to unite us with whatever it wanted to say, or consolidated its case by anything solid to be at the end a delicate yet fragile movie like its hero or should I say its anti-hero ?! Honestly nothing was cohesive ! The shots were too damn long, the rhythm was deadly slow, the important information came like a few parsimonious drops ! And I just doubt that no artiest in the world wants his audience to fall asleep in front of his work as this one successfully did ! Moreover the main character in herself as forgiveness in a human form was really cold provoker or not convincing. You'll find yourself screaming so many times while watching : this is masochism !.. And it's a crime.. you are the victim in it and the criminal.. so when you acquit such a mean killer and make him back to our society by this too soft, too weeping and too emotional witness then he'll do it again and again.. well lady.. this is a fatal man slayer or at least a disturbed sick person who looks like a loving kind of guy (which makes him more dangerous as a killer) but you're just too blinded by love to see that.. so this is not love.. this is an illness which means that this cute girl is needing help very fast just like her brutal sensitive love !Further than that, look at the character of the lawyer (K.D. Dietrickson/William Hurt) who seemed a good person from the start without even one thing which changes a bit in him at the very end, for better or for worse !? But that's nothing compared to the stupid final scene when he told the girl in great emotional condition : "I've learned from you .. a lot .. but I'll tell you about that .. Later" !!!! As for me this is a very weak scene ! and speaking of which let me tell you eagerly about those 2 dull scenes where she was swimming in the pool ! OH MY GOD.. That wasn't only boring but also a truly pedant piece of work like the movie wants to tell us visually that she is as pure & placid as this water !Over and above, you just find those idiots who applaud and glorify the movie as I dare them all to tell me whatever they learned from it or understood, and even if they could (which I doubt so much) let them be that objective once to tell me, or themselves, what are the defects of their beloved movie ?! The big result of the aforementioned was : a character that makes you ailing, a plot and a style which were both whether feeble to a crappy extent, or pedant to alleged extent, which would put you away from its true well-meaning or its noble message.P.S : the intro scene of (Sean Penn) as the pathetic image which we all turning into without the presence of loving affectionate and tolerant persons like (Hedda Amerson) among us.. that fine scene looked really independent away from the whole movie as the only true perfect thing here, making an ugly irony if you compared it to all what's after it.

kyleroberts It's interesting how depending on the maturity of each viewer, there are so positive and so negative comments at the time. This proves one more time how differently we perceive things. I saw this movie, maybe 3-4 years ago. I must admit, I did not experience any feeling of excitement while watching it, nevertheless it did catch my attention. When it ended the only idea that I was left with was that love is like a drug... if you become addicted ... it can ruin you. Robin's character response to "if you were to go back in time what would you do?" , "I would do everything just the same"... was tattooed to my brain. This story needed to be told and it couldn't have been better told. This is my opinion.

Geo It has been a while since I have seen this film (saw the premier in Toronto), but I really enjoyed it and was very impressed with the unique take on abusive and destructive relationships that it explored. I strongly reccomend it and if anything might dissappoint the general viewer, it is that it takes time to understand the characters and does not judge them or box them into good or bad.Geo-