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Julian (Jason Clarke) is a flashy, cocky 'branding' executive who is asked to put off his divorce until his boutique company can be swallowed by a 'family values' conglomerate, at which he will be the lead person. While waiting for a first date setup through a friend, he happens to trade amusingly intellectual verbal barbs with a mysterious woman named Michael (Paz Vega). The conversation is apparently so intense for him that he proceeds to reject everything he's worked hard for because her free spirit inspires him to suddenly think about passion.
From the start, none of the characters you are presented with have likable qualities, so it's extremely hard to care when any fail, or don't get what they want. They are all self-centered and assured that everything they say is really important. This conversational defect makes the journey of the script a painful crawl as each scene seems entirely based on who will win for the moment. Chemistry of any kind, whether friendly or romantic, is sorely lacking among everyone. The dialogue, both corporate and personal, is so blandly crafted with repetitive clichés that it makes you wonder that any of these people got as far in their lives as they seem to have. The only person who gets to show some interesting sense of humanity is Julian's secretary Cheryl (Anne Ramsay) when she's trying to care for his over-working needs and he's brutally shrugging her off.
The acting itself isn't totally poor, considering the material they have to work with. The sibling connection between Julian and his sister -- a cyclically abused mother played by Pinkett-Smith herself -- actually feels genuine compared to any of the other conversations that take place throughout the rest of the film. The production design is on point, with offices and lived-in homes that speak more to the characters' depth than anything they get to say, such as what they are trying to escape or what they value. However, it speaks volumes of lacking story that I'm even mentioning production design here to begin with.
Having not had a theatrical run, it's doubtful too many people will get the opportunity to watch this bizarrely unentertaining, supposedly sensual story of a man pursuing his groin over success and finding himself at the other end. But, I still have to do my part to warn anyway, as named talent can sometimes fool even the cautious spectator.
The DVD includes a commentary track and two making-of featurettes.
