This is not a movie for an American audience in general, it just isn't. It is a move for adults. It is mature and sophisticated. That means no CGI or action with guns to solve problems. We just lost 70% of the American audience. This is not for younger people. When we say "art" movie or some other genre, what does that mean?This is a movie about relationships and the complexity of life. Are you telling me people cannot relate to their split sides? Everyone has a fragmented self. Movies like can illuminate, but I think those who are shallow and in denial cannot see what is right in front of them. If you saw this in a theater, you were probably with someone. Who wants to walk out of the theater and say, "Wow...I have a lot of Alice in me!" No...we want to hide our shame, not reveal it. If you watch this movie alone, it impacts differently. So yeah...it is slow and boring to many, but this is an adult movie with intelligence and great acting. There are so many subtle nuances to these characters. This requires attention and focus. You can't watch this with kids playing or phones ringing...FOCUS folks...this is worth it, unless you never want to look at self.

Despite its intriguing premise, this film never really makes it. The acting, given the talent brought into it, is excellent, but the script provides nothing good for an audience to take hold of. It doesn't help that the first five minutes are so badly written/edited, you'll have no idea what's going on. The characters are intolerable people. Any other people would have said no to the invite to Tom's birthday party. They're not hateful or bad people, but they're either spineless, pretentious, or selfish, all to a degree that is utterly unlikable. Furthermore, the plot consists of mostly flat dialogue. The few moments when it feels like some real conflict is going to build, it fizzles out before it goes anywhere meaningful. Rachel Weisz does her best with the material, but by the tenth or fifteenth painfully obvious lie, it's infuriating that people believe her and that the people who know she's lying are so willing to shrug it off and continue interacting with her.

I watched this movie because I've often thought about how great it would be to keep switching lives the way "Alice" did in this film. Despite a beautiful performance by Rachel Weisz,I felt that the script and therefore the film, was limited. It seems like the kind of film in which the book, if there is one, would be much better.The film made it seem as if Alice's changes were all about moving from job to job and location to location. It reminded me of when people say "Don't define me by what I do for a living" because that's what Alice appeared to do. She was a singer, a biologist, a teacher, an artist, etc. What was not touched upon was her relationships. At one point Tom asks her if she had been married; she says no. I would have asked "Did you have any relationships?" suspecting the answer might be yes, but none lasting. The message came across that yes it's exciting, romantic and adventurous to keep on moving and changing one's home and one's job, but it's doable only by being completely selfish and beholden to no one. In just about all Alice's actions, including at the party, she seemed to not care at all about anyone but herself. Perhaps that's the only way one can live such a self-oriented life... unless you happen to have a partner who is just like you and lives life as your carbon copy.

Tom played by Michael Shannon is having one of those 'crisis' moments in his life. Whilst on the surface he has all the trappings of success, under the wafer thin surface he is falling apart and losing those things that he had once used to define his very existence.Then, at a dinner party, a work colleague brings a new 'friend', this is Alice (Rachel Weisz) and immediately Tom recognises her, only he does not remember any 'Alice'. Thus begins a night of revelations and stories at odds with normally acquired experiences. It is the story of one person who has escaped through reinvention and one who craves escape but is shackled by convention. This is an indie type film but has a high quality production and with the cast it boasts is not short on good performances. The real strength here is the story itself and so that makes this one of those films where one viewing may be enough. That said it is still more than worth seeing even if it is just that once.