This movie was merely OK, defianetly nothing great. Sure Russell Crowe had a lot of screen time, his acting however uneven and wiffed a bit of ham. The violins of the score drove me mad and wrecked of smoltz. Jennifer Connelly was OK nothing great. The actor that stole the show for on screen prescence was Paul Bettany, a star in the making methinks. The second half of the film dragged as it rambled to the get to the get your hankys out <violins again> finale. If you insist on seeing a film about a fight against illness I'd recommend Iris over this.