This was a real sleeper for me -- I had never heard of it until I read Russell Crowe's bio on IMDb. I checked the movie out and, as soon as it was finished, I rewound it and played it straight through again. I just wasn't ready to let it go. I liked the story, admired the dialogue, and loved the acting. Crowe was a real revelation; I hadn't seen him in anything but LA Confidential, The Insider, and Gladiator -- in other words, a full-blown star -- and he was uttterly lovable as Andy, a basically decent guy with honest instincts. I have only one quarrel with the story and it is a minor one: Martin hates and distrusts his mother, yet we are given is no basis for this -- indeed, quite the contrary. As we see his mother in flashback scenes, she is a loving woman who patiently tries to teach her son how to listen to his world and see with his ears. There is simply no foundation laid to motivate Martin's antipathy toward her and his subsequent distrust of the world. Other than that, I found this film to be real and lovable, just like Andy.
