mharriso131 God was this movie awful.First off, the main character has no personality, isn't that great looking and shows no emotion. Yet Winona Ryder practically stalks him to become his girlfriend. Because we all know that in real life, hot girls love strange, psychotic introverts. For some reason in Indie movies, things like this happen all the time. It is total bullshit, a filmmakers wet dream, because most are like the main character. If I go to a club tonight, sit by myself and act like a creepy sociopath, I will really land the hottest girl in the club.His job is to write poetic suicide notes for people, because that is what you really care about when you have decided to off yourself, that you are viewed as a poetic genius. Of course nothing nasty/vindictive about the people in your life that eventually pushed you to that point, like 99.9% of suicide notes.Really dumb movie, written and directed by people with no basis in reality.

akumarfun This movie is phenomenal.The script is well written and the characters have portrayed themselves very well. Its about a writer who writes the suicide notes. He never tries to forbid his clients from going ahead with their suicides. That's also strange.Ray's character is great. He does some unusually strange things.Scaring the baby and the concept of venting you anger on inanimate objects were very original and idiosyncratic.You will love this movie if you ever had setbacks in your life. Its a different take on life and the thinking of various people. Things we think of but never verbalize in public.

Stepper_on_flowers Caution: spoilers ahead. This is a spoilered review, so be warned.The film starts out as original, even bold. The character of Evan is very well fleshed and sympathetic (at least from my standpoint). The premise is quite believable, with a certain slightly decadent/slightly post-modern charm, and definite intelligence.However, once the drama begins to unfold, the movie's charm slips away, while the gaping maw of Hollywood threadbare *romantic* morality looms into view. And promptly eats the main character.As it turns out, writing beautiful poetry or prose for someone's grand exit out of life is a shameful sin. Only depressed people with the obligatory abused childhood may contemplate doing this for a living. And that these people must be punished, and corrected in their ways.Charlotte (Winona Ryder) was deeply estranged from her brother, they haven't seen each other or talked for a long time, and she wasn't there for him when he chose to commit suicide. On his funeral, she spots Evan, the professional death note writer (accomplished, too, - as we're told, one of his notes won a writing award) and chases him relentlessly, ignoring his uncertainty and basically throwing herself at him. When Evan finally submits to her *charms* (after having been cornered on a roof, no less), the situation changes dramatically. Evan eventually becomes truly enamored with Charlotta, while she begins to demand total knowledge of his life. Out of completely misplaced chivalry (the usual plothole of Hollywood romances, and a definite hint at the travesties to come), Evan chooses to hide his occupation, in pointless hopes of avoiding the very questionable risk of causing psychological discomfort to his lover.Needless to say, Charlotte finds out, and of course, like in all those B-grade low-brow romances, she immediately throws her "love" towards Evan overboard under the double pretext of "deceiving" her and being a soulless jerk who dares to ornament people's deaths in beautiful poetry. At this point one might wonder why the work of the common undertaker or grave monument sculptor is not being so stigmatised, but someone writing "death notes" should be perceived as a deviant. Moreover, history knows plenty of brilliant poets that were obsessed with death to a certain degree (Poe, Baudelaire and Rimbaud to name but a few), and no one dares to label them soulless or uncaring.The crushed Evan is not allowed such blasphemous thoughts, however. After a pathetic encounter with a mugger, where Evan's emasculation is finalised (he cries like a child and says his sorry for hitting the mugger back after the bastard pistol-whipped him), he dutifully abandons writing, leaves town, and engages in a pointless, stupid Luddite-like business of letting raging morons throw electronic equipment that baffles their tiny minds off a cliff, while filming this ordeal. This final scene may very well be seen as a meta-comment on the movie itself, which abandons an intelligent and promising premise in favor of filming the pointless rage of a moronic woman and the damage it caused to a sophisticated piece of equipment that was the protagonist.All in all, while amusing (from an academic standpoint), it was really sad to watch. It sends a deeply flawed message. This movie and others like it have a lot in common with older, male chauvinist "taming of the shrew" scenarios, only with the roles reversed. It's quite shocking in this day and age to see such primal, degenerate values at work. I feel particularly sad for Winona's participation as in the past she played characters similar to Evan but from a female perspective, and usually managed to maintain the integrity of these characters. Too bad she didn't recognise this movie for what it really is - a low-grade "romance" replete with false morals, masquerading as something thoughtful and stylish.However, once you realise all this, you can appreciate the movie from a different angle - that of Fatum in the hands of moralising authors against the protagonist struggling to maintain his integrity. Like any Greek tragedy, this one ends tragically. I gave this movie an 8 due to the following: 1) good premise; 2) Wes Bentley is very good as Evan; 3) the movie may be appreciated on a different philosophical level once you come to grips with its skewed morality; 4) baby-scaring therapy was hilarious; 5) I adore Winona Ryder. If you have any comments on this review, feel free to check out the message board where I've posted a more erratic & angry version for discussion.

arieliondotcom This is a very strange movie about a guy...a very strange guy...who makes his living as a freelance writer of suicide notes for other people. Very dark most of the time with bizarre bits of comedy thrown in thanks to the presence of Ray Romano of all people (Everybody Loves Suicide, I guess). Although you think he'll only be around for a walk on (and kill off) he's around for most of the film and really makes the picture with his deadpan delivery of some wacky but very funny lines that are all the funnier because of the bleakness of the film surrounding them and the context plus his delivery. Romano is a human Eeyore and this film is a perfect foil for him.One joke is very vulgar but (I'm ashamed to admit) I found it very funny, thus the R rating, but most of it is probably from a liberal use of the "F" bomb.Very unsettling, very odd, and all the more surreal because it's also very funny. Worth watching for the (to me) surprise ending alone. Which is appropriate as a last word for this film.