The film is so talky, repetitious, visually stuttery, and slackly paced that sitting through it once is like seeing it twice.

NEWYORKER: Chungking Express

Talky dramas are harder to export than cartoons or action flicks, which is partly why the major studios now concentrate on such things.

ECONOMIST: Independent films are at last recovering from the slump

Mr. HOLLOWAY: Yeah, it is a small talky indie film.

NPR: A Beautiful Movie: 'The Diving Bell and the Butterfly'

So when Hobbit comes out this December, if you settle into the talky parts with little difficulty, that bodes well for the future of high frame rates.

ENGADGET: Editorial: Despite shaky 48 fps Hobbit preview, high frame rates will take off

The contemporary notion that it's somehow inherently bad for a film to be "talky" has done grave damage to the culture of American movie-making, enough so that a growing number of people, myself among them, have all but given up on Hollywood.

WSJ: A Movie That Plays Like a Play | Sightings by Terry Teachout