RICK

In this modern-day take on Verdi's 16th century opera "Rigoletto", Rick O'Lette (Bill Pullman) is a rotten jerk of a corporate middle manager. He has an even more obnoxious boss half his age (Aaron Stanford) who unknowingly pursues Rick's teenaged daughter, Eve (Agnes Bruckner) on an X-rated Web chat room. In the film's opening sequence, Rick thoroughly humiliates Michelle, (Sandra Oh) a young woman applying for a job. She curses him, and he eventually gets the karmic retribution he deserves (sort of).

With a snarky, acerbic screenplay written by Daniel "Lemony Snicket" Handler, RICK is wildly uneven. I'd argue that Sandra Oh is even better here than she was in SIDEWAYS, even though she disappears after the first ten minutes. Pullman has been more convincing elsewhere (see ZERO EFFECT), but some of his scenes with Bruckner are so surprisingly touching and refreshingly subdued that by the film's tragic end, you almost believe Rick's capable of rehabilitation--almost.