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List Price: $14.98 | | Label: MGM (Video & DVD)
Salesrank: 45192
Released: July 9, 2002 |
| Our Price: $3.87 |
| Used Price: $1.99 |
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MPAA Rating: R (Restricted)
Media: DVD |
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Editorial Review:
Good and evil, love and hate collide in this captivating adventure from award-winning director Hal Hartley. Starring Sarah Polley (The Claim), Robert John Burke (Robocop 3), Academy Award® nominee* Helen Mirren (Gosford Park) and Academy Award® winner** Julie Christie (Dr. Zhivago), No Such Thing is a provocative and deeply moving film thatwill change the way you look at the world. New York journalist Beatrice (Polley) travels to Iceland to find a monster (Burke) believed to have killed her fiancé. Once she meets the beast, he opens her eyes to the horror of his existencehe has witnessed history from the dawn of time. Moved to help him, Beatrice takes the monster to New York. But when a media firestorm erupts, Beatrice realizesher monster is more than he appears to be and the world may not be ready for the truth. *Supporting Actress, Gosford Park (2001); Supporting Actress, The Madness of King George (1994). **Actress, Darling (1965).
Description of No Such Thing:
Writer-director Hal Hartley (Henry Fool, The Book of Life) has loosened his usual arch style, but the results are no less distinctive. Sarah Polley (Go, The Sweet Hereafter) plays Beatrice, a naive young reporter who is sent by a huge media conglomerate to investigate the disappearance of a camera crew in Iceland. Eventually she finds an immortal but depressed and alcoholic monster (Robert John Burke) who wants nothing more than to die. Beatrice agrees to help him find the one man who can kill him, and she draws the monster out into an invasive media spotlight. No Such Thing is maybe too ambitious; the story tackles not just the media and world unrest, but even the history of mankind. Still, like most of Hartley's work, the movie remains uniquely engaging, a delicate mix of irony and sincerity. Also starring Helen Mirren (Gosford Park) and Julie Christie (Afterglow). --Bret Fetzer
No Such Thing Reviews:
Magically engaging 
2009-11-10 - Why this film is magic to me is unclear. It may be that it is about Iceland and I love Iceland. It may be that it is tactile, almost silky in its cinematography. It may be its playful sarcasm. It may be that I find Sarah Polley to be unbelievably beautiful and her short quiet devastating retorts to the inane characters around her to be perfectly delivered. It may be something that I can't put my finger on. Maybe that is what magic is.
Less is more sometimes. 
2009-05-26 - First and foremost I have to say that the actors in this movie were definitely above average. And the beginning of the movie was very very good, it brought you in and really sold you the emotions and feelings. The ending however could have been done better. It was very rushed and so unlike the authenticity of the beginning. It made me wonder whether they just went too trigger happy at showing the evil vices of human culture.
The way it was ended made me want to rewrite the script. There wasn't enough build of the relationship between the monster and Beatrice like they led up to in the beginning. Instead they decided to pursue insignificant story lines (like them getting famous) that did not help the movie at all. They could have conveyed the same message they were going for if they had continued in building the relationship, and it would have been much better and less immature.
I did however enjoy the role of the Scientist, and his thought provoking speeches, even though he didn't show up until the end. Hopefully people who watch this can grasp the concepts that he portrayed, because they were all true.
And in the very end where it all blacked out was very typical, trying to hard to make a dramatic farewell. It fit but I wish they had done it a different way.
I liked the movie as it tried to get the viewer to think about the downfalls of society and the evils of human existence and I enjoyed the characters, but in the end it tried to hard. Less is more sometimes.
Not your usual beauty and the beast story...
2009-05-02 - Very good. I really enjoyed this movie. No action scenes, no overtly sexual scenes. Just a movie that makes you think.
SLOW 
2008-04-23 - Slow delivery!Came from Canada over 10 days,and they did not respond to emails almost canceled
Well acted, wished for a more upbeat ending 
2008-03-16 - Well acted, well crafted story abbout the way situations changed characte's life. I was hoping for a mor uplifting ending but I ma not sure it could have ended any other way.
