Lawrence Kasdan's lofty epic about the human condition is hit-or-miss, but when it hits it makes for tantalizing cinema. The film depicts characters on a treacherous search for enlightenment in the City of Angels. Perhaps Kasdan's film is more fantasy than anything else, an attempt to envision a world without violence or class distinction. Grand Canyon evokes other multi-character "meaning of it all" epics such as Nashville (1975) and Magnolia (1999), and though it investigates fate and randomness in a new light, these concepts have been examined more intricately in other directors' efforts. Kasdan does some inventive things cinematically, however, including some innovative, vivid dream sequences. The central moral premise of the film is also fairly revolutionary, portraying people going against the grain to fight the system -- even if it amounts to putting a band-aid on a shotgun wound.