In a vacuum, this movie is merely mediocre. Compared to the novel, it is a disaster, yes, but try to keep that out of your mind. Yes, Tom Hanks is woefully miscast. Yes, Melanie Griffith is repulsive in her phony overblown southern drawl. Yes, Bruce Willis is, um, not English and the whole point of his character is that he is supposed to be English. And, yes, the Ted Kramer character is barely in the film version. And yes — ah! what did I just say?! Think of it just as a film! Okay, as a film — it still is a good yarn, even if the pacing is off, and there are some very funny scenes. De Palma is a terrible choice for this material, but he seems to have checked out as an auteur after the first scene — a typically wonderful De Palma-esque tracking shot. There are two or three other nifty camera moments. So, in conclusion, I’m kinda glad I saw it, and if you’ve been avoiding it all this time as I have, it may be worth taking a look.