I finally saw it last night and while I agree with your assessment for the most part, I did come out enjoying the movie. It is a slow character driven movie and he probably could have cut some time out of it, but I did find the characters interesting, the story, while a little predictable, still was enjoyable. I would rank it in at 3.5 stars. If you haven't seen the second half, it does get really interesting and fun(ny)