I think The Trial is rated about properly - it´s fascinating and frequently brilliant and there´s so much going on, but it´s also very uneven and the connecting tissue between the flashes of greatness isn´t always what it should be.
One particular problem I personally have with pretty much all Welles´s works I´ve seen (besides Citizen Kane) is the too-frenetic, relentless pace and the overt talkiness - time and time again I wished there was some narrative down time, that the silences would linger a little longer and camerawork/soundtrack would take over for more extended periods of time. But Welles dashes on and the characters jabber on and then there are scenes too silly or self consciously bizarre (like the women throwing themselves at Perkins or that clownish painter with his annoying antics).
And then there´s the issue of Perkins who - as one reviewer wrote - is simply too twitchy and obnoxious as Joseph K. The book character was much more a cipher and yet, in a peculiar fashion, simultaneously more relatable. Perkins carries him a bit too much on the surface and his performance tends veer time and time again into a too high-pitched, feverish theatricality. He seems like a good choice to play Joseph K., but somehow fails to hit the nail 100%.
But of course there´s so much great stuff going on most of the time; it´s shot with such virtuosity and imagination & it has so many scenes of immense power that the flaws are certainly not what I chiefly remember about it. And even what I consider the final misstep of going out with a bang instead of a whimper, is amended by Welles´s final words over the end credits.
"facts are stupid things" - Ronald Reagan
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