A Life Less Ordinary

Here is just a smattering of what you can expect to find in A Life Less Ordinary: an assault on a robot janitor; heavenly visitors who carry guns, and chew tobacco; Holly Hunter doing her best impression of Robert Patrick from Terminator 2; a karaoke contest which turns into an MGM production number; a guy painting rocks turquoise; a Vietnam veteran who barks like a dog; more magic bullets than the Warren Report; and an archangel Gabriel who looks suspiciously like Nick Tortelli from Cheers. Less ordinary? Decidedly that. More compelling? Not necessarily. The creative team behind Trainspotting have crafted a fast-paced romantic road picture about a laid-off janitor (Ewan McGregor) who kidnaps his boss's daughter (Cameron Diaz), peppered it with violence and dark comedy, then drowned it in a heavy sauce of absurdist fantasy. It's less a story than it is an exercise in surrealist hip. Very optional. (S. Renshaw)