In light of the previous credits of director Fernando Meirelles (CITY OF GOD) and writer Peter Morgan (FROST/NIXON), 360 not only feels shallow but also lazy in it's "when there's a fork in the road, take it" seemingly random fates of its ensemble cast (some get what they want, others do not, but the filmmakers are unable to hide the fact that they have their favorites). In Vienna, British businessman Michael (Jude Law, THE TALENTED MR. RIPLEY) stands up call girl Blanka (Lucia Siposová) - actually Mirka, who is working for pimp Rocco (Johannes Krisch) - but that missed connection still has repercussions beyond the immediate blackmail from a business associate. In Paris, Algerian widower dentist Zina (Jamel Debbouze, ANGEL-A) consults his psychiatrist and his cleric over his stalker-ish attraction to married assistant Valentina (Dinara Drukarova, AMOUR). In England, Michael's magazine editor wife Rose (Rachel Weisz, STEALING BEAUTY) breaks off her relationship with photographer Rui (Juliano Cazarré, ELITE SQUAD) over her feelings of guilt, but not before Rui has lost his own Laura (Maria Flor, ALMOST BROTHERS) who has hopped a plane back home to Brazil. Laura finds herself stranded in snowy Denver with John (Anthony Hopkins, SILENCE OF THE LAMBS) who is in search of his presumed-dead daughter. Also stranded at the airport is probationed sex offender Tyler (Ben Foster, 3:10 TO YUMA) who has misgivings about his own rehabilitation and is extremely rattled by Laura's friendliness.

The first half feels so abrupt as it moves between the lives of several unlikable characters, and only really comes to life for the lengthy chunk in Denver with Hopkins, Foster, and Flor (which itself might have made a more interesting movie) as well as the intertwined stories of Zina, Valentina, her husband Sergei (Vladimir Vdovichenkov, INTERCEPTOR), Blanka and her sister Anna (Gabriela Marcinkova, BYZANTIUM), with the return of Law's Michael and Weisz's Rose (the characters least deserving of closure) at the end feeling obligatory (although I suppose we can be thankful the camera just abruptly cuts to them rather than contriving a transition). Where the film does succeed is in (hopefully) exposing the audience to some new and lesser-known excellent actors (particularly Debouzze, Flor, Vdovichenkov, and Marcinkova), as well as a sensitive performance from Foster and a restrained one from Hopkins. Moritz Bleibtreu (DAS EXPERIMENT) and Marianne Jean-Baptiste (28 DAYS) also appear. It might strike the right note with fans of the stars, but it will feel all-too-familiar to cineastes.