This is the definition of a feel-good movie. It is all the better because it doesn’t push its audience to feel a certain way. We don’t need to hear speeches about how making people happy changes him. It trusts the story to work its magic.

It is a better package, maybe because having an actual conclusion gives it a purpose, as well as stronger narrative momentum.

Does that faithfulness make for a better movie? It is certainly better made. However, I am not sure it is as entertaining.

It feels like every other PG-13 sci-fi/action blockbuster, with nothing all that interesting to distinguish it.

The pieces are there for something great. It sometimes feels like it is approaching that. I had high hopes. Though it didn’t meet them, it is still a well-made, challenging, film.

It moves like a cliché sports movie yet, underneath, it is the story of a woman pushed to be someone she isn’t, being smothered by an emotionally/physically abusive husband.

There are stretches that are great, some that feel overly repetitive and an ending that I’m not quite sure how I feel about. That’s Yorgos Lanthimos for you.

If you can look past the surface of the story, dig into what it is trying to say, this is a pretty significant project.

It is a goofy little movie with charming animation, some tonal issues and a few amusing jokes. It is totally harmless, good-natured and completely forgettable.

Ethan Hawke makes what could have been an exhausting character equal parts charming, funny, tragic and self-aggrandizing. It is really entertaining, which is important here because Lorenz Hart is basically the entire movie.