Whats wrong with this film? Mind boggling.

How come this wasnt recieved better by the critics? I've watched this film a couple of times but not recently. I remmeber so many wonderful and heartbreking scenes, like Macy buying lottery tickets to save the firm or Schlitman being pulled over so many times or Gandolfini with a wonderful performance telling how the water never tasted OK there. I remmeber the brilliantly written beggining, where Travolta is explaining how much an injury is worth. I loved the structure, I loved how long and almost epic in this was.

Having said that, I DONT remmber what made this not a masterpiece it could have been. Was it the overlong second part, where the Duvall character spoils it a bit. The anti climactic ending?

This novel was a masterpiece and Zallian did a wonderful job, I dont know what failed here.

Im just mind boggled by the reception of films like this and Contact, theyre just brilliant yet they barely get 70 on rottentomates. These are huge constructs and deserve to be seen again.

Debate!