Part of it might have been the props, stiff white wings, a heavenly bureaucracy, the courts of all the assembled dead that include only those nationalities pertinent to the protagonist's trial, that would have worked better for me in a satire than in a serious film.

Yeah, sounds like it. Or maybe as a cartoon.

I felt about as positively toward that narration as toward Philip Glass' score for Notes on a Scandal, which made me pray that the DVD would come with a "no soundtrack" option.

I want to see that movie--it's too bad about the score, especially as I'm something of a Philip Glass fan. I frequently listen to his soundtrack for Kundun, even though I haven't watched the movie since it was in theatres.

But the costuming for the man made from the broom, the owl and the raven, and the dancers who perform the water that fills up the house, was wonderful.

Yes indeed. I especially loved the water.