It's taken me many months to be able to absorb this film to the point where I can write about it in some way. Being honest, there is too much exposition at the beginning of the film, the plot development is a bit shaky and sometimes the suspension of disbelief is hanging by a thread. However, what this film gets right, it gets right to such a high degree, and so much better than any other film-maker has been capable of, that it has to go into the "above and beyond" category, a masterpiece. What this film is about is men and women, this movie encapsulates the state of the modern western world. It grapples with the weightiest of issues with deft skill, and incredible fearlessness. It shows men in the modern world as they are (on the whole), and it shows women in the modern world as they are (on the whole), and it shows why and how, and the consequences of, men holding on to the old order - it shows how men infantilize themselves, constantly looking for validation, becoming macho characatures, aping some old forgotten code which has died, in the hope to attract women who have moved on and are looking for something different. It hints at the violence and culture of fear that lurks behind the surface of narcissistic charm. In many ways, because of its consumerist anchoring, this story becomes the story of the modern world and it's development and evolution to the point where we are now, the plot is irrelevant, but the story is something eternal, marking this moment in time.