The M.O.W.'s Movie Reviews (333)

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The Château 
Was this suppose to be a comedy?
1.5/4 stars

"Graham" (Paul Rudd) and his adopted, African-American brother (Romany Malco) go to France to claim a chateau they have inherited from an uncle they don't know.

The two meet the staff of the place, and there is an immediate language barrier and culture clash.

Now, the two have to figure out what to do with the place.

The first thing you can't help notice is that the film itself is very grainy. In fact, at times, I felt like I was watching video transferred to film. At other times, I felt as if the footage was a lot older than it is.

However, there are some good performances in this film. But, some interaction was hard to believe. There was probably some problems in the writing of the scenes, because this script was far from perfect. The two leads did a pretty good job,and many times appeared to be more friends than adoptive brothers.

If I am not mistaken, this movie is suppose to be a comedy. When you have people speaking two different languages with no way of being able to understand one another, it can be funny -- if the script is done properly. This movie missed many times to take advantage of this problem. If the two lead Americans were more comical, then they could have made the scenes a lot more funny. They completely missed making them understandable to the French funnier.

Another problem was the weakly written romantic subplot. I felt little to no chemistry between the ones involved in this plot device.

Another problem with this film is that it mostly takes place in the chateau and its grounds. We get a couple of scenes on a train and at a train station, but we never get to meet anybody who lives near the place. They never even go to a nearby village where the two Americans could have gone to for whatever reason, lose their French-English dictionary and tried to ask for directions back. I just could not laugh at anything in this film.

The soundtrack is completely forgettable. I can only recall two or three songs in the entire movie, and most were during the closing credits.

The only thing interesting in this movie is when a particular character reveals himself to the Americans. However, with the poor writing of the film, they barely go anywhere with this plot twist.

I just can not recommend this movie. But, check it out when it is on HBO -- when you're really desperate to see a movie.

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