1/5 "Of being human". Shut up already.
  by Richard Ross
My mom picked this film up at a thrift store for fifty cents. After bringing it home and watching it I told her she overpaid. I've grown to hate movies that present themselves as "an inside and irreverent look at Hollywood" because they aren't as vicious or clever as they promise to be. Name dropping "celebs" like Danny DeVito and Billy Crystal isn't particularly relevant or interesting. The film, about a husband and wife screenwriting team, stars Eric Stoltz and Felicity Huffman. (Wouldn't you know it the film is actually made by a husband and wife screenwriting duo.) Huffman's character was molested at the age of seven and the abuse has turned her into a distant wife and mother who gets high all the time and leaves the parenting of their son to Stoltz. He feels unappreciated and unloved so it's no surprise that he goes looking for a little something on the side. He finds exactly that with a hot soccer mom (Kim Dickens) whose son plays on his son's team. Even though she's married, she doesn't rule out the possibility that something could happen between them. A running dialogue in the film is a dreadful narration by Stoltz in which he addresses the audience as if they were jurors. He asks for their verdict on his so called crime. What is his crime: thinking about cheating on his wife? It is only when all the uptight couples drop some ecstasy at Stoltz's birthday party that things heat up. Some skinny dipping takes place that allows ol' Eric to live out his fantasies with Dickens. Huffman doesn't seem to mind since she has something going with her pot dealer (William H. Macy, Huffman's husband). The scene reminded me of the nude party in 'The Last Picture Show' and again wouldn't you know it that film's director Peter Bogdanovich has a bit part here as a veteran director living with a model/actress who's barely 20. Undeserving of the generous praise on the back of the box the only things I enjoyed in this film were a busty Justine Bateman as another mom who hits on Stoltz and the hot sex scene between Stoltz and the sexy Dickens. It's exactly what you would expect to find in a film made for the Showtime network.

5/5 I miss this show!
  by Jason S. Roush (Ironton, Ohio United States)
I loved this series...I was distraught when it was cancelled...I really wish it would come back. This DVD is for anyone who loved the series...Eric Stoltz is brilliant!

5/5 No one star reviews, peo-ple!!!
  by monkeytot (USA)
Hoe often do you see amovie that has NO 1 star reviews? not many and this one is the exception! this is an actor's movie and not meant for casual film fan's. Yes, Huffman is in it!!! Huffman is rapidly becoming my favorite actress thanks to manic pill popping Lynette!!! Go now and buy this!! It is unlike antything ever seen!! Stoltz is in it too!!! yes! Bobus!!

3/5 Heavily edited version of the original
  by Scott Burkett (Lewisberry, PA USA)
While the basic story is till there, and it is quite interesting, what is available here could show on NBC. If you're looking for the original, full-length version, this isn't it! It's not just 'edited for content'....several complete scenes are missing.

4/5 The intriguing pilot from Showtime's series, but not the whole story
  by Lawrance M. Bernabo (The Zenith City, Duluth, Minnesota)
I did not remember that "Out of Order" was a Showtime series, which also means I never saw it when it originally aired in 2003. So this review represents somebody who, given what others have said here, does not know what he is missing. I also rented this DVD, so I do not have the disappointment of finding out this is only the show's two-part pilot and not all six episodes. I checked in out because anything with Felicity Huffman in it is enough of a recommendation to check it out, and this cast also offers Eric Stoltz, Kim Dickens, Justine Bateman, Adam Harrington, and William H. Macy.

"Out of Order" is very loosely inspired by the real-life experiences of the show's creators, the husband and wife screenwriting team of Wayne and Donna Powers, who started off writing episodes of "Cagney & Lacey" and "The Equalizer" on television and went on to do the screenplays for "Deep Blue Sea," "Valentine," and "The Italian Job." Our focal character is Mark Colm (Stoltz), who is married to Lorna (Huffman). They are a writing team, except Lorna, who is suffering from chronic depression, has stopped writing. While her creativity has dried up for the moment, Mark's is in overdrive. He thinks of his life as being in a movie, where a camera crew follows him around and animals talk (mainly to demand more food, more quickly).

The pivotal issue in this pilot is Mark's fidelity. Cut adrift by his wife and unable to do much more than stay out of her way, he has moved from lusting in his heart and from afar, to actually looking for an opportunity. He thinks he has found exactly that when he meets Danni (Dickens), when they are watching their kids play soccer. Danni has already done the trial separation with a complete dip back into the dating pool, but has recoiled with her husband and is only offering friendship (which, to Mark's credit, he realizes is no small gift). Meanwhile, another mom from the neighborhood, Annie (Bateman), actually offers Mark uncomplicated extra-marital sex, which he rejects. Is it because he fears complications with Annie, because he cannot handle being the pursued instead of the pursuer, or because he actually feels a connection of some importance with Danni?

Meanwhile, Lorna is trying to come to terms with the deep-rooted source of her emotional problems, and is finding comfort outside the home with Stephen (Macy), a failed producer, who becomes her primary drinking buddy. Mark is worried it might be more and so are we (Huffman and Macy are married to each other, so there is an undercurrent here, just like there was with Michael and Nancy on "thirtysomething"). Mark's birthday is coming up and while Danni will not agree to give him want he wants (and Annie is still making offers), he comes up with something that might shake up his life. After discussing what should be the drug of choice for the character in the script he is writing for a director (Peter Bogdonavich), it is decided that Ecstasy might be the way to go. Well, a writer should write about what he knows so everybody shows up at his house to try out the drug, the hot tub, and the pool. In that order.

Suffice it to say that underwater sex can be pretty erotic and that Mark ends up crossing a line. This leads to the question of what he is going to do about that, and now that I know there were four more episodes after this I can appreciate why we are left hanging at the end here. True, each of the cast members look up at the camera and declare the moral of the story in turn so that there is no doubt what the lesson was here, but that only takes away from the overt metaphor that is the payoff to the mystery as to what crime Mark is guilty of in this story. He addresses the viewer at the start and assigns to us the role of jury that will decide his fate. Given all the possible indictments his actions raise against him, and which he dismisses on his own, the revelation at the end really works against the moment.

The performances are all solid, as you would expect with this sort of ensemble and the situation is complex enough that no final judgments can be rendered at this point as to what should happen with these characters next. This, of course, is desirable in the pilot for a series, but less so for a pilot taken as a complete film. The talking animals idea is really good for only one decent laugh, but the idea of recasting scenes as famous movies certainly looked promising. Lorna's confrontation with her mother and step-father over Thanksgiving dinner is played out in Mark's mind as a fight sequence from "Raging Bull." Fortunately, the Hollywood insider bits do not become too pretentious or overbearing. The ending might not be satisfying, but the rest of "Out of Order" is worth judging on its own merits.