Narration was used too much, it seemed half the movie was narration. An interesting and ironic premise, but it was too hard to get into the film due to constantly being "taken out of the action" by the narration.
I did enjoy Guinness playing 8 roles, and the lead character was very good. Worth seeing, but get it from Netflix.
Much of this film's dark wit and charm was in the narration. Without the narration, it would have been just another story.
Films such as this (and most films, I would say) are not great because of great plots -- a great film is usually great because of its execution and dialogue. Basically, what I'm saying is that it isn't the story being told that makes a good film, but HOW that story is told. This film told its story through great witty dialogue/monologue, much of which was in the narration.
I loved the narration as it gave us a lot of great insight into how he loathed the D'Ascoynes and the pleasure he took in running them down, whilst smiling politely to their faces. The narration provided a better glimpse into the subtext and it was funny stuff too!
shareI know what you mean. The thing that stood out to me on my most recent viewing is how relentless the narration is, and how disorienting the experience of watching the movie can be. The narration is so dense with information, and so much of that information is conveyed through its subtle nuances, that processing the narration makes it difficult to follow the images on the screen. I hear the movie more than I see it, which, as you say, seems to take me out of the action.
But I suppose that's necessary when you think about what the film is doing. If you can't get some distance from the violence and cruelty here, I'm not sure that it would be so easy to see the humor in Louis's actions and his understanding of those actions.
Of course, a lot of the narration is necessary to reveal what he's doing, why he's doing it, and why he thinks it's justified. In a way, the movie seems less interested in putting us in the action than it is in putting us in Louis's perspective on the action. And this, I think, is important to one of the darker points (and jokes) of the movie: it seems we're put in Louis's perspective to such an extent because his is the appropriate perspective from which to see and understand the story--not only because his plot is moving the story forward, but also because he sees the world more clearly than anyone else in the story. Only Louis seems to understands the people around him and why they do the things they do. He's evil, but he's right about almost everything. If we want to understand the world in which he lives, we need to go through Louis. It takes a violent sociopath to form a clear-eyed view of that world and the monsters who inhabit it.