Numerootno A story that's too fascinating to pass by...

AshUnow This is a small, humorous movie in some ways, but it has a huge heart. What a nice experience.

Allison Davies The film never slows down or bores, plunging from one harrowing sequence to the next.

Logan By the time the dramatic fireworks start popping off, each one feels earned.

Reaper This is 84 of the most excruciating minutes I've ever spent watching a movie, and I've seen Gigli.The movie opens with a gratuitous shower scene with a naked Neve, before showing parallel scenes of Neve Campbell spewing platitudes on a kind of job interview with a character played by the director, while the boyfriend character (Ford) is spinning multiple lines of nonsense that nobody would believe. The dialogue is clumsy and very superficial in both sequences, and seems to mostly illustrate that both main characters are vapid and unlikable. And all of the scenes, both in the beginning and throughout the movie, go on forever and ever. The introduction of the Count is even clumsier. Dialogue between the count and his flunkies - I mean, his assistants - serve the painfully obvious purpose of showing that he is a Very Important Man. Ford's one successful pitch is to pimp out sweet little Neve, who double crosses both of them, or something. The double cross, when it happens, is actually not bad, but it doesn't make up for the excruciating scenes that go before. Getting to that third act does not justify the previous two. Even beyond the fact that there is not one decent, sympathetic character here, I was ready to scream at scenes that took forever and did nothing.

RyanCShowers The first 40 minutes of this was absolute crap. I was thinking to myself "How could Ebert have given this 4 stars?" But the second 40 minutes was like a complete 180. The greatness started with the meeting of Neve and the Italian guy. From then on I couldn't get enough of it. It kind of reminded me of her other film, Wild Things. But man, she was phenomenal in the second half. .I also very much admired the cinematography and art direction. The classical music playing in the background really bothered me though. It was annoying and didn't match the rest of the film.See it for the amazing second half, just skip the first 40 minutes. Campbell's at her best; 7.

wonderdawg Watching wily old writer/director James Toback chatting up dewy-eyed Neve Campbell in WHEN WILL I BE LOVED is to witness a veteran Hollywood player at the top of his game. Casting himself in a small role as a university professor, Toback is pictured talking to a sophisticated young deb named Vera (Neve Campbell) about a job as a research assistant although he seems to be suggesting there are other positions she could fill as well. Since the dialogue is largely improvised it is not unreasonable to assume Toback is fluent in this kind of doublespeak in real life. In the film-maker's 1987 opus The Pick-Up Artist Robert Downey Jr. plays a smooth-talking womanizer rumored to be based on Toback's own experiences. It is possible to see why Toback succeeded where other directors have failed in getting the comely Ms. Campbell to take it all off for her art (which she does in this film.) Toback was nominated for a screen writing Oscar for 1991's Bugsy but it is small personal films like 1978's Fingers and 1997's Two Girls and a Guy that have earned him hipster cred among Hollywood's cool young elite. The filmmaker encourages his actors to become involved in the creative process. In Campbell's case, "I came to her with 35 pages of script and we ended up talking for 12 hours and throwing ideas around and becoming very inspired by each other," he tells us on the DVD commentary track. (We also learn on the DVD that the film was shot in 12 days followed by 8 months of editing. Toback's tips on how to shoot fast and cheap are essential viewing for any young filmmaker with big themes and a miniscule budget.) Campbell won the best reviews of her career for her performance but the entire cast sink their teeth into the meaty provocative dialogue with relish. The script has Vera, described by Campbell on the DVD as "empowered, somewhat manipulative but strong ", exacting an unexpected revenge on her fast-talking hustler boyfriend (Frederick Weller) after he attempts to negotiate a tryst with an elderly billionaire (Dominic Chianese of Sopranos fame ) who has become fixated on her and willing to pay any price to indulge his obsession.The improbable plot line serves as a vehicle for Toback to explore his "curiosity about sexuality and physicality but also human nature and what drives people to do the things they do." (Toback leaves it to his cast to improvise their own sex scenes - like a lesbian encounter between Campbell and Ashley Shelton.) The prickly auteur has a cheerful disregard for conventional rules of film-making and it shows. The conversation between the professor and Vera probably goes on too long and there is a bizarre scene with boxer Mike Tyson that defies description. Yet Toback makes no apologies. "With this film there is no right or wrong answer. The way that people respond or decide who Vera is has a lot to do with who they are, which I find interesting."

hcoursen How could Ebert have liked this film? He tricked me into watching it. Shame on your bad joke, Ebert! This one isn't even episodic -- in that episodes have some meaning, even if they are unconnected to a coherent narrative. Instead, we get random scenes that do not in any way anticipate the ending. In one scene, an unidentified young man is given a large yacht -- why? The ending itself, which I won't reveal, seems to be motivated by the young woman, but since it is an accident, even that won't work. And her diabolical plan just as well could have backfired. Compare the play and counter-play of "Sleuth". That a wealthy Italian count could somehow have developed a passion for this plain and badly dressed young woman -- and even compare it to Dante's glimpse of Beatrice -- is incomprehensible. This is not even a valid study of a psychopathic personality. And the one love scene between the girl and her boy friend is -- literally -- impossible. The director does not seem to realize that certain basic adjustments must be made prior to starting. Awful. To give it a number at all is to insult the numerical system.