One thing I thought the film accomplished quite well was the surreal feeling of being out in the desert, surrounded by seemingly lifeless stretches of nothingness. Even before the film moved out of L.A., that surreal feeling was there in the way the story started eerily unfolding. The world around the characters felt dead, like they were the only ones around. Even the first shot of the film, with Jon driving down a deserted big city street (obviously part of the Universal Studios backlot), immediately accomplished this eerie effect.

The acting really has its ups and downs in The Big Empty. I like Favreau, and he was pretty good here. Rachel Leigh Cook and Sean Bean were good as well, but Adam Beech felt painfully miscast as an evil, murderous boyfriend. He never felt sincerely threatening at any point, even while waving a gun or chainsaw at someone. Kelsey Grammer has a hard time playing anyone other than Frasier and poor Jon Gries, who was so good as Uncle Rico in Napoleon Dynamite, is far more annoying than humorous as a perverted, invasive motel manager. Daryl Hannah is invisible as a barkeeper, but since she doesn't really do all that much in the film it's hard to say if she was really "good" or not.

The unclear-for-the-sake-of-being-unclear ending is more annoying than thought-provoking, especially after learning on the DVD of the writer/director's own unclearness on it's meaning. We're given an ending point that's so unresolved it felt to me like an obscure X-Files fan fiction script. Only, unlike The X-Files where the mystery is there to tease you into watching next week's installment, there won't be another episode of The Big Empty, so pretty much the whole endeavor felt like a waste of time. I can't get into details and specific criticisms of the ending without delving deep into spoilers, so I'll conclude this largely spoiler-free review with the following advice. While I wouldn't casually recommend The Big Empty to anyone but real, hard-core indie flick or Jon Favreau fans, I also wouldn't try to dissuade anyone who's very interested in checking it out from doing so. If you think that's a supremely non-committal ending to a review, it only reaffirms my feelings toward this underwhelming, "not bad" movie.

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