By the Sea

It's a fascinating experiment, and proof that Jolie truly has directorial chops and an extraordinary eye for imagery.

The actors aren't unhinged enough for the scathing conceit, and the script is more of a mechanism than a revelation.

The point to all this seems to be life is cruel and people are jerks, but sometimes very good-looking jerks. Deep.

What are the artistic purposes for this tedious collection of frowning, drinking, bickering, peeping and smoking scenes? "By the Sea" is long on perverse images but short on ideas.

Pitt invests the vague, cranky relationship with his usual intelligence and restraint, but the movie is destined to rank with such celebrity-couple fiascos as Gigli (2003) and Shanghai Surprise (1986).

It's very, very slow, with probably only 20 minutes in a two-plus-hour movie in which something could be said to be happening.

This movie would have been a lot better if it weren't so concerned with being beautiful or important.

There is no doubt that this drama is a half-hour too long and slow-moving, but Jolie and Pitt do some of their best work in scenes here -- and they don't hold back.

For those of you who complain about the multiplex offering nothing of substance for adult audiences, this is a grand opportunity for you to put your money where your mouth is.

Might truly be the most narcissistic vanity project of all time.

Jolie-Pitt, as director, is wading into the territory of Antonioni's bourgeois disaffection... But it takes much more than this to make art out of inertia.

There's something unshakable about it, and something remarkable about the fact that it exists at all.