Brad Pitt: did an excellent job. For the first time, I didn’t see "Brad Pitt". I saw a crazy, deranged person. He supposedly spent several weeks observing a mental patient, and it paid off. His mannerisms and speech are dead on. He was also in "Se7en" this year, where he was never really believable as the optimistic, rookie cop. But his performance as the nutty Jeffrey Goines is deserving of an Oscar nomination.

Bruce Willis: the Yul Brynner of the ‘90s. Shaving his head was a great move. He did a very good job in this film; convinced me that he was moving through time, and not sure what was real and what was in his head. I also admire his willingness to look really bad on screen—drooling, dirty, bloody, naked, banged up and doped up—he doesn’t care. For most of the movie, he looks like shit. Most big stars would not allow themselves to be seen like this over the course of an entire movie.

Story: Very good. Not many holes—most things can be figured out when you go back and look at the whole story. The ending was good, and there were even a few surprises, even if you saw where the story was going. Is Cole (Willis) delusional, and in an asylum in 1996, or does he actually travel through time, bouncing around between the 21st and 20th centuries? That’s left for the viewer to decide.

Terry Gilliam: Great job. The look of the film is totally his, similar to Brazil. Don’t go see a Terry Gilliam for a typical, upbeat Hollywood movie. Dark, complex, thought-provoking, visually stunning. Those are the things that Gilliam does well.

Madeline Stowe was competent, but I don’t think she really added much to the film.

The ending was telegraphed, somewhat, by Willis’s recurring dream. This didn’t really bother me, but someone with whom I saw the film thought this detracted from the experience.

The image of Willis sitting in the chair, far above the ground, watching the crazy scientists. This is the image I take away from the film. The individual against society. Here the individual loses, unlike most Hollywood movies, where the individual beats society.

Two unexplained things. One: why was Willis so strong? He lived underground, in a small cell, no fresh air or sunlight. Why was he such a physical superman? And Two: that disembodied voice—the bum who calls Willis’s character, "Bob." Just his imagination, and he projects that voice onto the bum? Neither explanation is satisfying.