(Rating likely to go up on subsequent viewing--given my distaste for the Russell I've seen ((particularly his work of late)), I was expecting to despise this but was actually quite taken with it, though I spent much of the time watching the film struggling with that in relation to my aversion to what I perceive to be his artistic attitudes. So, needless to say, a revisit sometime soon is definitely in order.)

Not what I thought it would be, but no good nonetheless. Takes the good that it does accumulate and goes in entirely the wrong direction.

This is all about the interplay of aesthetics: the tangled, convoluted, thorny aesthetic of much of the film vs. the plainness and emptiness of that final scene; also, light and dark. Vulnerable, human cracks in the slick procedural surface of the film devastate.

Stoller has it, as I suspected. Casual rewatch in the company of friends, and it's not quite to the level of Five-Year Engagement, but there's some really striking stuff here. Best of show - Segel and Brand's exchange on the surf.