Amazon.com Customer Reviews
 Rated 4 out of 5
Hartley Tries Something New, While Staying the Same
I had been eagerly anticipating this film because it featured three of my favorite film personalities... Hal Hartley, Sarah Polley and Helen Mirren.Buzz around this new film had been rather negative... largely, I think, due to the trailer on the NO SUCH THING website, that makes the film look like a mainstream film... which is certainly is not. It's Hal, through and through and I really loved it. Sarah Polley and Helen Mirren are outstanding as an innocent, waifish assistant, and her hard-nosed, cynical boss respectively, on a television news show. Robert Burke (UNBELIEVABLE TRUTH, SIMPLE MEN) plays the monster. Julie Christie also appears as a brilliant doctor in Iceland. Hartley tackles a stairical look at the media... and does so with humor and real emotion. Some of Polley's scenes as she undergoes a series of traumatic hardships are amazing. And the slow revelation about the monster while hardly unexpected is still surprising. Once again, Hartley wraps things up with a mysterious and transcendent ending.  Rated 5 out of 5!
An amazing film on a modern day fable.
When a true living monster (Robert John Burke) living the Icelnad Country. When a T.V. Crew from the United States are killed by this Monster, by looking for a unique story. A beautiful bright young woman (Sarah Polley) decides to go Iceland to meet the monster. Unexpectedly, they start a friendship-while she brings him to New York City for fame. She starts to take a liking to him and he feels the same way, despite his immortality.Written and Directed by Hal Hartley (Amateur, Flirt, Trust) made a unique, one of a kind film. That's a homage to Beauty and the Beast at a modern day world-which makes this film a Winner. This very underrated film has terrific performances by Polley and Burke's Best Performance since Stephen King's Thinner. This was little seen in theaters, this is actually a Instant Cult Classic. DVD's has an anamorphic widescreen (1.66:1) transfer and an fine Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround Sound. DVD only extra is Tralier. This is a film worth seeing and worth buying. Executive Produced by Francis Ford Coppola. Grade:A.  Rated 2 out of 5
An inventive, but ultimately lackluster allegory
This film reminds me of a quote by Oscar Wilde - "Religions die when they are proved to be true. Science is the record of dead religions." This movie seems to want to make this point, but it does so in such an obvious and annoying way that I can't help but see dead horses and big sticks.
Sarah Polley and Robert John Burke deliver quality performances. However, the charactes they play are so contrived and two-dimensional that it's hard to take them seriously. Add this to the costume designer being held responsible for the changes they go through in New York (she in a Gaultieresque nightmare that would end any stylist's career, and he somehow fitting into an Armani suit and Prada shoes) with no apparent character work to back it up, and we're left with a train wreck of contradictory images that are impossible to justify.
I know this is supposed to be a modern fairy tale, but, as with most fairy tales, the reality of the characters' conflict has to be real. It is that connection to real life that sustains a fairy tale, and it just isn't there in this film.
There are some nice moments in the movie and some amazingly witty lines. It's just a shame that the last act ruins what was a compelling story.
|
|
