Slipstream

There are times when actors should stay with acting and not get into the directors chair, especially when they're working on their own projects. With this story Anthony Hopkins, who is by far one of the great actors around today, wrote, directed, composed the music and starred which is, after watching this movie, way to many hats too many to wear for one film.
As writer Felix Bonhoeffer's life is coming to an end the world within his mind starts to merge with the characters in the screenplay that he's writing and the real world that he's living in. With a superb cast that includes Christian Slater, Michael Clarke Duncan, and John Turturro, just to name a few, it's entertaining to see them move from one type of character in a realm to another but once it starts to become confusing it's tiresome to follow them back and forth. Some of the symbolism that Hopkins uses throughout the story is good but without a straight forward conclusion the meanings are disoriented and bewildering.
One of the biggest drawbacks of this film is that by the end the audience is never told exactly what has happened to the Bonhoeffer character. We know the character is dead but what is all the other stuff that happened to get there. Its an interesting story with some fabulous dialog, but with the jumping around of the characters from real life to fantasy to dream state your lost and once the ending comes and you think that you'll finally be told what has been happening to the main character, your mind is left hanging without an answer and you feel as if you've been robbed.