Rating of
2/4
Malick wanna-be
sidehacker - wrote on 09/18/07
The cinematography, as expected is pretty fantastic. Very reminiscent of Malick and as a whole one of the best photographed films I've ever seen. I don't think there's anything else positive to say about this film. The characters are either incredibly pretentious and speak like poets or are incredibly obnoxious and unlikable. Towards the end, it gets even worse because they become completely uninteresting. Their motivations, desires, and feelings are jumbled in some sort of allegorical mess. Weir is not the one to blame but instead the script is. For a film with such profound beauty you'd expect some insight into the characters but instead it's mostly involved with the plot. The problem here is that the character aren't really shallow or are they flesh puppets manipulated to create certain points in plots. However, it's just that they aren't showcased as much as the plot. They become a bit of a backdrop. The score is also quite bad and makes the slow motion sequences come off as rather silly when they could have been beautiful. Another off-putting aspect of the film is the use of stock footage. It's so glaringly obvious when it's juxtaposed with the real life cinematography. Based on this and Dead Poet's Society, I can tell that Peter Weir is a very good director. However, it seems that the content he works with can't even begin to catch up with the technical achievements he was making.
Recent Comments
sidehacker - wrote on 09/20/07 at 08:45 PM CT
Picnic at Hanging Rock Review comment
Yeah, those are the only two I've seen. I'd like to see The Last Wave eventually but it's not the highest priority at the moment.
Sophie B. - wrote on 09/20/07 at 08:29 PM CT
Picnic at Hanging Rock Review comment
Have you only seen this and Dead Poet's Society from Weir? I haven't seen either of these actually, but I love a few others of his. If you're interested you might try The Last Wave or Gallipoli. He is not a purist in any sense, whereas I think Malick essentially is. He is interested in actually reaching an audience and some very good and very bad choices occur as a result.
