Film Review: "360" (2011).

"Everything comes full circle" in 360. This drama thriller film directed by Fernando Meirelles, adapted by Peter Morgan, and loosely based on Arthur Schnitzler's La Ronde. A dramatic thriller that weaves together the stories of an array of people from disparate social backgrounds through their intersecting relationships. The film combines a modern and dynamic roundelay of stories into one, linking characters from different cities and countries in a vivid, suspenseful and deeply moving tale of love in the twenty-first century. Starting in Vienna, this movie beautifully weaves through Paris, London, Bratislava, Rio de Janeiro, Denver, and Phoenix into a single, mesmerizing narrative.

The film stars Jude Law, Rachel Weisz, Ben Foster, Anthony Hopkins, and Marianne Jean-Baptiste. Yes, the cast is certainly seductive with Nobel intentions and some lovely performances. But too bad the director keeps getting in their way, and the direction often beguiling. Yet ultimately we're left with a distinct sense of abandonment, of a story insufficiently told.

The result feels schizophrenic. An offensively condescending tourist's eye. The pornography of global damage and suffering for the popcorn munching voyeuristic entertainment of more economically cozy moviegoers. While Schnitzler's narrative returns an unequivocal guilty verdict on sexual morality and class ideology, the jury on Meirelles's storytelling abilities remains hung. I don't remember being thrilled even once. A lot of righteous finger wagging along the way but many punches are pulled. More stylistic bark than substantive bite. The philosophical ambitions of Schnitzler and Meirelles are quite insistent, but the story feels like a story, not like the truth-it's both far-fetched and predictable. If Meirelles' style were any murkier, audiences would have to bring flashlights and a shovel. Not only preserves the book's flaws but has added to them. The combination of drama and soap box proves an uneasy, and ultimately unsuccessful, one. The film is engaging, still it never connects with much more than a curiosity. The emotions run, but not deep. Ultimately, it offers reassurance that the rat-infested system doesn't need to be smashed, only cleansed. As its taciturn title might suggest, the film could have used a major injection of forcefulness. It's interesting and absorbing enough that I can't call it a failure, but it doesn't cohere enough to qualify as a success. If the personal story works better, though, it's partly to default: As a political thriller, the film has a few holes. The film doesn't self-destruct, implode or fall to pieces the way other movies do when they end badly. It just loses its form and drifts away. If it sends audiences home to log on to the Amnesty International website, terrific - but that still doesn't make it a very good movie. It is more like walking past a series of paintings than watching a film. You can admire the skill that went into work, but it never carries you along. The outcome seems rushed and predestined, rather than exposed. The personal and the global are at frustrating odds.

Simon says 360 receives: