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'November' is a bad month

Intriguing or annoying. Those are the two likely reactions to the intentionally elliptical November, which plays and replays the events surrounding a convenience store shooting, which might or might not have happened anyway.

Sony Pictures Classics 'November' C+ The verdict: A crime in triplicate, repeated with altered details, just to mess with our minds. Director: Greg Harrison Starring: Courteney Cox-Arquette, Matthew Carey, Brittany Ishibashi, Nick Offerman, Amir Talai Run time: 88 minutes Release date: July 22, 2005 Rating: R for strong language and sexual situations. See showtimes On the web Official movie site View the trailer    Trailers require Quicktime Rate "November"   Go see it   Make it a matinee   Wait to rent   Don't bother Voter Limit: Once per Hour View Poll Results

Writer-director Greg Harrison (Groove) does manage to make this trifle into something stylish on a meager budget, but it would not have cost him much extra to give the story — uh, stories — a satisfying resolution.

Courteney Cox of Friends gives her most credible dramatic performance as Sophie, a photographer with studious glasses and what her mother (Anne Archer) calls "an underachiever's haircut." One night, following a Chinese meal with her boyfriend, she waits in her car while he goes into a corner grocery and gets killed by a nervous gunman. Already wracked with guilt over a casual affair, Sophie freaks further when a slide of the convenience store inexplicably shows up in the photography class she teaches.

Or perhaps none of that happened. Events are repeated twice with significant changes that suggest alternate universes and outcomes. Cox gamely tries to piece the clues together, sifting through arty snapshots of the store's wares, not unlike David Hemmings trying to sort out potentially criminal doings in a London park in Blow Up. Or perhaps the movie that should come to mind instead is The Sixth Sense.

Either way, there are things to admire in November, but the frustrating ending is not one of them.