I had severe reservations about seeing Go. I had loved Doug Liman's earlier picture, Swingers, but I'd just got an impression of Go that it would be frustrating and annoying; that it would be about irritating twenty-somethings who keep doing stupid things. While, in some sense, that is a loose description of the movie, Go has so much energy and enthusiasm that these people aren't at all irritating.

I really hate movies that have the protagonists doing incredibly stupid things just to advance the plot, especially when a really obvious, sensible alternative is ignored. Go doesn't do this at all. Perhaps it's the pace at which the film moves, or perhaps the situations are better constructed, but the decisions the characters make all seem right at the time. Sure, thinking back over the movie one can think of possible alternatives but, even then, these are along the lines of "perhaps they could have tried..." rather than blindingly obvious choices that they missed.

There is one exception and that is Doug Liman's decisions to take the film to Las Vegas. Based on his body of work, it seems that he has a bit of a thing for Vegas, and in both of his movies I found the Vegas sections to be the least satisfying. Sure, they lead to great punch lines, but until the players are actually trying to leave Vegas, the energy flags just a little.

Otherwise, I can find no fault with Go. All the performances are great, especially Scott Wolf and Jay Mohr as Adam and Zack. Katie Holmes looks and sounds like she just stepped out of Dawson's Creek, but it works for the part.

Especially pleasing about Go is the point it makes about context being everything. Just like Arlington Road, Go stresses the notion that how we interpret events is based very heavily on our perspective: the car accident is one such scene but so too is the scene of Claire (Katie Holmes), in the diner, talking to Todd (Timothy Olyphant). This scene changes in two ways: first, we have some background on these people by the time we see it repeated; and second, we get to see the reactions of Todd, which are missing the first time.

This is a really fun film with a very high energy level. Yes, the characters make some bad decisions; yes, they get themselves into some very hairy situations but they're all really likeable. They are enthusiastic and endearing in ways that make each next scene in the movie exciting and eagerly anticipated. A great sophomore effort from Doug Liman; now if he could just stay out of Las Vegas.

Rating: D