Jake Gylenhaal is a force to be reckoned with. He out-acted Dustin Hoffman, Susan Sarandon and Holly Hunter. He has definitely lived up to his potential thus far. Oh, and he's funny. He was on The Daily Show last week and was definitely entertaining. He made the movie.

Speaking of the movie, I liked it. It was an interesting, realistic depiction of how people deal with death. Not to imply that everyone will act like these characters, but they weren't just grieving and crying for a week; they had a variety of real emotions, and that's always refreshing for a Hollywood film. Unfortunately, the director did not do the best job, er, directing. The pacing of the film and the story was great, but there was something off about Sarandon and Hoffman's acting. They are both amazing actors but it's clear that Brad Silberling (also the director of Casper and City of Angels) could not properly translate the character to these actors. Too bad really.

Nonetheless, I do recommend the movie. The writing is very good, also by Silberling, and the filmmaking goes unnoticed, in a good way.