Dane Cook, Elizabeth Mitchell
“ANSWERS TO NOTHING” My rating: C
97 minutes | MPAA rating R
The multi-character, multi-plot melodrama can be very satisfying.
Robert Altman’s “Short Cuts,” the Oscar-winning “Crash” and Rodrigo Garcia’s excellent “Mother and Child,” for example, each scored big by following several plots united by a common themes (the alienating effects of modern life, race relations, parenthood).
Writer/director Matthew Leutwyler’s “Answers to Nothing” attempts something similar, giving us a sprawling drama unfolding in LA over several days in which the city is abuzz over the presumed kidnapping of a little girl.
But despite a cast of great depth and talent, there’s not much cinema magic here. Leutwyler and co-writer Gillian Vigman take a scattershot approach. They haven’t really focused on their themes — heck, they fail even to define them — and the resulting film seems adrift.
Butler's Cinema Scene 