junk. it is a tour of what goes on around brilliance, but it never actually portrays any. this leads me to believe that it's writers, are also, not brilliant. it's a smoke screen. you hear about how great the kid's book is, but you never hear or see any great writing. you see marilyn monroe's old jacket. so what? at the end, michael douglas says, oh, and crabtree? he's still busy being crabtree. huh? crabtree (downey) got virtually no exposition. what is that statement exactly supposed to mean to us? beats me. oh, and there's a dead dog in a car trunk at one point. now that's wacky. i hate to give such a low rating, but this movie is pushing for all that it can to be some kind of dead poets society, and it simply has none of the substance which in such movies is essential. i can't believe people get suckered by this kind of obvious hype. it's a waste of time.