Fun premise, good actors, bad writing. This film seemed to have potential at the beginning but it quickly devolves into a trite action film. Ultimately it's very boring.

This is one of the few movies I've ever seen where the whole audience broke into spontaneous, loud applause a third of the way in.

It's a feast for the eyes. But what really makes this dramedy work is the acting.

Through painfully honest and emotional moments, the movie becomes irresistibly relatable

In this HBO Documentary film, filmmaker James Toback (The Gambler, Bugsy, Tyson) and actor Alec Baldwin trek to the Cannes Film Festival, in May of 2012, to try and raise money for their proposed movie. Although, this film may be more geared to film buffs, a moniker I can unabashedly admit to, I thought it offered lots and lots of wit and humor, as well as wonderful insider stories from those in the movie industry.They meet with distributors, billionaires, heads of movie studios, and film stars such as Ryan Gosling, Jessica Chastain, Berenice Bejo, Diane Kruger, and James Caan. They also talk to some of the real greats in filmmaking, such as Coppola, Polanski, Scorcese, and Bertolucci. I thought almost all these meetings and interviews were remarkably candid and enjoyable.I might mention one story told by Francis Ford Coppola. After winning 6 Oscars from the "Godfather" movies, he couldn't get financing for his next movie, so in frustration he threw his Oscars out the window and they smashed into smithereens. However, his mother came along, picked up the shattered pieces and took them to the Academy to get replacements, telling them the maid accidentally broke them.We get to see how the movie industry has changed over the past decades, and it can be quite the sad portrait. Now, it seems unless you're trying to finance a high budget franchise film, your chances of receiving funding for a mid-range movie, even with known stars, is extremely difficult. A lot of the distributors and investors admit that they don't even care about the quality of the script, just in the profit projections from their money people.Just to mention as the interviews are progressing, photos or film clips of the subjects or persons they're discussing appear briefly on a split screen. My biggest objection to this style was that the clips were not left on screen long enough so I had to use my pause button quite a bit. Also, there are some scenes where strong sexual connotations or language are explicitly used, for those sensitive to that.All in all, as mentioned this documentary may appeal mostly to film aficionados, I found it quite humorous and interesting from start to finish.

*** This review may contain spoilers ***While watching this I couldn't help but wonder if it was all just a bit of an elaborate expense claim scam being perpetrated on the viewer. Alec & James go on holidays to the Cannes film festival stay in nice hotels and have a bunch of lunches and smoke cigars with industry luminaries, interspersed with a few strange segments where they pitch a vague artistic movie premise to some rather confused looking film distribution and finance types only (despite both having been in the industry for decades) to be strangely disappointed when they discover nobody wants to put up a few million to fund their rather loose artistic movie endeavor. However, not all was lost they had a great vacation while getting you to pay it. Although, this documentary itself is a laughable contradiction of the very premise it tries to argue.

The fact that I liked "Seduced and Abandoned" should be no surprise. After all, I write about films and love films, so of course I'll like a documentary that talks about films and how they are financed. Additionally, it's a great movie for film students and young actors, writers and directors to see. However, I really am not sure if it has an audience beyond that. Are more of the regular folks out there ready to watch a film like this? I assume the answer is no, but the film is informative and entertaining and probably won't bore you.This documentary from HBO Films stars Alec Baldwin and his partner in this venture, James Tobak (a writer and director who directed and wrote this film). Most won't know who Tobak is, though he's respected in the film industry and was quite enjoyable to watch in action at Cannes. As for Baldwin, I loved him in this film as he and Tobak interviewed so many interesting people. But, I am also afraid that while his presence in the film provides a 'big name', recently this unpredictable actor has alienated just about everyone (especially gays, flight attendants and the folks at MSNBC)! Still, he does know films and he is very personable in the documentary.This film is about this team trying to convince a lot of rich financiers to invest in an upcoming project—one Baldwin jokingly refers to as "Last Tango in Tikrit" (Iraq)'! Much of the time, as they talk to the rich money-men, I felt surprised that these behind the scenes folks would allow themselves to be on camera. Less surprising were the interviews with filmmakers (such as Martin Scorsese and Bernardo Bertolucci) and actors (such as Ryan Gosling and Jessica Chastain). After all, exposure for these filmmakers and actors is usually a very good thing.The setting for all this is the Cannes film festival. While it used to be all about the movies, this festival has come to mean FINANCING—and over the last few decades the financiers are the important folks here. So what does it take to get financing? Well, according to this film, the script is apparently NOT important! What is important are the marketable stars associated with the project. This, to me might explain the bizarre casting of such films as "The Butler" (where John Cusack played, of all people, Nixon and Robin Williams played Eisenhower!). An interesting observation is how today films are really financed by committees—and committees tend to make timid films because it's practically impossible to reach consensus with risky ventures or strange ideas. It was also fascinating seeing the many, many countries that sent representatives to the festival to sell their country as a setting for the productions. All in all, this is a wonderful little film. It's also one that might best be enjoyed by total film snobs and folks in the know. So, if you don't know what "Cahiers du Cinema" is, who Henri Langois was or what the French New Wave was, then try to watch this movie with a complete film snob like myself! Interesting viewing and a totally unique little film.By the way, some folks might blanch at a couple of the film clips (particularly the one from "Last Tango in Paris"). It IS very adult on a few occasions. Plus, I felt uncomfortable when Roman Polanski was being interviewed—as will many others due to his very famous conviction for raping a 13 year-old (and the victim's testimony of what occurred was brutal). Because he was in the film, I scored it an 9 instead of a 10. Call me narrow-minded if you'd like.

Review: As a fan of movies, I was expecting quite a lot from this documentary because I thought that I was going to get a deep insight into getting a budget for a movie, but I found it quite boring and uninteresting after a while. Watching people with big egos, talking about the value of people in the movie business, really did make me come to terms with how cut throat the business is. Alec Baldwin made the movie for me and I enjoyed the interviews with Ryan Gosling, who has a unique personality, and Martin Scorsese who can talk forever about his personal experiences. In all, the documentary was just based at the Cannes Film Festival so I shouldn't make a judgement on all movie tycoons, but it was interesting to watch a big star like Alec Baldwin, struggling to get a big budget just because he isn't as big as Ryan Gosling. Watchable!Round-Up: I don't really watch movies from other countries so I didn't know quite a few of the directors in this film, but it was still interesting to hear another point of view about the world of making movies. Your name really needs to carry some weight for the producers to take you seriously, which is a shame for the people who want to make it in the business. I enjoyed watching Alec Baldwin work his charms with the various producers and movie moguls but after watching it for an hour and a half, it just seems like one big conversation without seeing any outcome. I think the film would have been much better if it was about a film that had already hit the cinemas.I recommend this film to people who are into there documentaries about 2 people trying to get a budget for a movie. 4/10