It's All About Love (2003)

Joaquin Phoenix, Claire Danes, and a startlingly coiffured Sean Penn topline this visually striking hybrid of science fiction and art-house drama from Dogme 95 co-creator Thomas Vinterberg (The Celebration). Phoenix and Danes are a recently separated Polish couple in the year 2021 who find their marital troubles overshadowed by a spate of strange and ominous phenomena plaguing the Earth–-people mysteriously drop dead in their tracks, cold snaps threaten a new Ice Age, and in Uganda, citizens must anchor themselves to the ground or risk sailing off into space. Add to this confluence of oddities a subplot involving clones of Danes, a murder plot hatched by her brother, and Penn as Phoenix's eccentric sibling who periodically weighs in from a plane, and you've got an occasionally impenetrable (and not particularly romantic) picture that may baffle fans of the stars' Hollywood efforts. However, the cinematography by Anthony Dod Mantle is beautiful, and those inclined towards more eclectic movie consumption might find some chilly treats to chew on here. --Paul Gaita Amazon.com

waste of life

I kept hoping it would get to the point. any point.

waste of time. wasted evening. totally stupid movie.

I love Joaquin Phoenix, and Claire Danes, that's why I got this DVD. sad sad sad disappointment. even the sexy Sean Penn was stupid to sign up for this one.

watch something better - like the Fireplace Video.
ss May 1, 2008

"Does this all make sense? Or is it too weird?"

An apocalyptic, fantastic dream of a love story wrapped up in a hallucinatory cocktail of poetry and karma, this movie is at once thought-provoking and way too much effort, so it is bound to be a "love it or hate it" kind of viewing experience. Especially the first time around. The telling quote used as the title of this review, by the way, is from the films' writer, producer and director, Thomas Vinterberg.

OK, so people are dying in the streets of NYC from lack of love, the world is freezing over, and Ugandans are floating away while the sinister Russian ice-princess cloning plot goes on. This movie is ridiculous and at the same time a commentary on so many things that are going on under our collective noses, right NOW (even if many of us can't/won't see it), and the choices we all have right in front of us.

In my opinion, "It's All Aboout Love" has way more pluses than minuses. It's well worth checking out, especially if you liked "Gattica" or "The Fountain". The cinematography is perfectly surreal, and the "good vs. evil" mentality you find in most movies today has been elevated to a "love vs. fear" kind of vibe. A strange, wonderful and terrifying film, made for a strange, wonderful and terrifying world.

Led by Joaquin Phoenix and Claire Danes,"It's All About Love" is narrated by Sean Penn. If you didn't like it/get it the first time around, I would suggest that you try it again. For me, the first viewing merely aroused my curiosity and compelled me to give it another look; the effort was well worth it. November 17, 2007

It's all about nonsense

Truly awful! I'd say this is one of the worst, if not the worst movie I've ever seen. I was tired when I started watching this, and couldn't figure out why I was perceiving no story and terrible acting, it was like a bad dream. I gave it 20 minutes before fast forwarding purely just to see if Clare would 'get her kit off' to warrant the R16 rating, but alas there was no redemption. I saw the comparisons to "Vanilla Sky" and "Lost in Translation" on the back of the DVD. Ha ha, that's rich! Vanilla Sky is definitely a cerebral movie, but is clever, edgy and well written (nothing in common so far). Lost in Translation is nothing like this movie, a slow and subtle touching encounter between two strangers in a foreign environment. Joaquin is so much better than this, yet it was like watching a school play being rehearsed badly. The same applies to Claire, who was actually pretty good in Shop Girl and who knows what Sean was thinking? What a waste of energy and talent, quite like sleepwalking really. Zee from Egypt liked it, perhaps it is 'lost in translation'? :) October 26, 2007

Worst movie I've seen since... well mabey ever

Description said, "In 2021 a man discovers that his estranged wife has been cloned while unexplaned phenomenon threaten all life on earth." Joaquin Phoenix, Claire Danes, Sean Penn. All in all it sounded interesting.

WRONG! This movie has actually hurts my brain. It looks pretty, cinematography gets an A. Everything else is downhill. People are dropping dead from "lonliness in their hearts" all over new york, there's some sort of coming ice age theme running in the background and early on an interesting bit about Ugandans flying, but they don't really explore that subject much at all. Oh, and there's figure skating, musn't forget that, cloning, pills, alternate realities, etc.

Claire Danes is supposed to be from Poland- the accent is horrendous, on the brightside though sometimes she forgets to use it for whole scenes at a time. Near the end you can tell Joaquin is supposed to be Polish too, but his bad accent doesn't show up until the last 15 mins of the picture.

The movie is all over the place, after I was more then half way through I found myself hating almost every minute, but still watching- clinging to the hope that they would somehow tie it all together and it would in some way be a return on my time investment. It never happened.

It's not bad in a campy cute John Waters way, it's bad in a Battlefield Earth / what have I done to myself kind of way.
July 16, 2007

Off the wall

To be sure, this is one of the most bizarre films I've ever seen. If you like TWILIGHT ZONE type movies, you may find this one worthy of a look. However, even if you do like TZ, this one may yet be a bit too out in left field.

The casting is terrific, with Joaquin Phoenix, Claire Danes and Sean Penn. Claire Danes is perfect for her part in that she can mimic a puppet in certain scenes. The direction is solid and the film is well-done.

The problem I have with the film is that it's so.......weird. It's one of those films where you wonder where it's "going" all thru the film, and really don't get the satisfaction of finding out @ the end. Yes, I get the apathy = cold part, but still....it paints with a very wide brush, toying with so many different ideas. It touches upon another Ice Age, human cloning and some other topics which are just plain "out there."

In the end, I would only recommend this film to people who absolutely crave TWILIGHT ZONE type movies and / or David Lynch films. I can't think of too many people outside those two categories who would care for this one. March 5, 2007

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