Grab your seat, concentrate, and for chrissakes don’t blink. You might miss one. No, not a mystery-revealing plot point, but one of the nuances or tiny events that make the movie feel like a piece of new precious metal, not immediately discernable from any common rock except for the small, delicate details. Those small details make all the difference in this movie, and in everything else I suppose.

Jim Carrey plays out of character here. Even his face plays out of character; no rubbery insanity, no bulging-eyes-and-steaming-ears slapstick stares, just a quiet and somewhat indifferent sadness, more like real life than most real life.

If you didn’t like Adaptation, you might not like this one either. But lord knows you should have liked Adaptation, so go see it again. Then go see this.