How could anyone find any substantial quality in this flat-as-a-fritter drone? What a terrible waste of excellent talent! There is no story, here, nor is there any depth of characters. We know the surfaces. Perhaps that's the story: Surface. We are only shadows. But this exposition of human solitude and casual relationships has been done over and over, until it's banal. This was not Bill Murray's best "side." The long parade of awards is not astonishing; the Industry has been rewarding superficiality and mediocrity for a decade, at least. "If we don't understand it, it must be brilliant." ("If we can't see the emperor's clothes, we must be Phillistines.")

Someone should have added koi to put color and motion in this shallow pond.

/GSE, WGAw