Pietruck Hey,If your going to make a documentary about Leonard Cohen try making it about Leonard Cohen! This is filled with only enough Leonard to anger the viewer who will be left wondering why they are listening to all these other singers (some of them questionable) talk about themselves. Puleeze....sounds like them reliving their diary entries in junior high - who cares about you, what about Leonard? Guess what people, if you "do something" worthy maybe someone will make a documentary about you. I found particularly insulting the parading of U2's members as if that would add credibility to this movie - NOT. Leonard doesn't need Bono or the Edge talking about his spirituality. What would have been nice would have been for the filmmakers to embody some piece of his spirituality through the film. Gee, what a concept! I will give props to Rufus Wainwright and Jarvis Cocker for their covers of Cohen tunes - the rest of the performances were a bore and some were unbearable.Cohen fans, don't say I didn't warn you!

stephenhill8 What kind of a documentary about a musician fails to include a single track by the artist himself?! Unlike "Ray" or countless other films about music artists, half the fun in the theater (or on the couch) is reliving the great songs themselves. Here, all the tracks are covers put on by uninteresting characters, and these renditions fail to capture Cohen's slow, jazzy style. More often, the covers are badly sung folk versions. Yuck.The interviews are as much or more with other musicians and figures rather than with Cohen himself. Only rarely does the film feature Cohen reading his own work (never singing)-- like letters, poems, etc. The movie really didn't capture much about the artist's life story, either, or about his development through the years. A huge disappointment for a big Cohen fan.

$thing The saddest thing about this "tribute" is that almost all the singers (including the otherwise incredibly talented Nick Cave) seem to have missed the whole point where Cohen's intensity lies: by delivering his lines in an almost tuneless poise, Cohen transmits the full extent of his poetry, his irony, his all-round humanity, laughter and tears in one.To see some of these singer upstarts make convoluted suffering faces, launch their pathetic squeals in the patent effort to scream "I'm a singer!," is a true pain. It's the same feeling many of you probably had listening in to some horrendous operatic versions of simple songs such as Lennon's "Imagine." Nothing, simply nothing gets close to the simplicity and directness of the original. If there is a form of art that doesn't need embellishments, it's Cohen's art. Embellishments cast it in the street looking like the tasteless make-up of sex for sale.In this Cohen's tribute I found myself suffering and suffering through pitiful tributes and awful reinterpretations, all of them entirely lacking the original irony of the master and, if truth be told, several of these singers sounded as if they had been recruited at some asylum talent show. It's Cohen doing a tribute to them by letting them sing his material, really, not the other way around: they may have been friends, or his daughter's, he could have become very tender-hearted and in the mood for a gift. Too bad it didn't stay in the family.Fortunately, but only at the very end, Cohen himself performed his majestic "Tower of Song," but even that flower was spoiled by the totally incongruous background of the U2, all of them carrying the expression that bored kids have when they visit their poor grandpa at the nursing home.A sad show, really, and sadder if you truly love Cohen as I do.

dcwidman I had known Leonard Cohen and his music - had several albums (Jennifer Warnes 'Famous Blue Raincoat' a great one). I went to see this movie, though, thinking it should be good but not knowing what to expect. I had just seen Neil Young's Heart of Gold and was disappointed because it was essentially a concert film of new (and very similar) music. It failed to show the diversity in Neil Young's songs over the years. The Leonard Cohen movie was also a concert film but with artists I wasn't very familiar with. WOW, was I surprised. To me it surpassed The Band's "The Last Waltz" and now - for me - is the best music film ever. I was blown away by the performances, being mesmerized by Anthony's performance and deeply moved by Teddy Thompson's. I wanted a remote controller so I could push repeat and see these performances again. Martha and Rufus Wainwright's performances were equally stunning. Nick Cave looked and sounded like Leonard Cohen, while the others brought new and wonderful interpretations to these great Leonard Cohen songs. Nick Cave's Suzanne was fascinatng as he sang the lead 'behind' the backup singers instead of in front. It was filmed in black and white adding to the experience. In short, there wasn't a disappointing performance among any of them and I wouldn't want any of them left on the cutting room floor. If there was a disappointment at all it was that The Handsome Family's wonderful rendition of "A Thousand Kisses" was cut short. That's the music. But, this is also an "art film". Very masterfully edited were comments by Leonard Cohen and other musicians including Bono and Edge from U2. Photos of Cohen's life, his art, and his poems were appropriately and artfully placed to give a real sense of this amazing person's life and contribution. When Cohen reads his introduction to a book of poems being translated into Chinese we not only understand the man, we understand and appreciate the value of humility and the too often overemphasis on self-importance. The final number with Leonard Cohen singing and U2 playing and capped off a marvelous movie. This is a must see for any lover of the arts.