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Anyone Love This Movie First Time, Then Change Mind?

posted 12 years ago by hilaryjrp
2 replies | jump to latest

I saw this when it was released theatrically here in the U.S. in 2009. The theater was packed (for a foreign film, in a very small town). People gushed. I thought it was a triumph.

I rewatched it last night and can't figure what I saw in it. Francois Cluzet was fantastic (and Bruno). The film reminded me a great deal of 1984's "No Way Out" with Kevin Costner and Sean Wood. The difference between the two is that "No Way Out" doesn't devolve to an anti-climactic scene where the entire byzantine plot is explained as if someone was reading a recipe.

No question that the Rambouillet forest is a significant draw for this movie; it's unforgettable, and you want to get back there. Bruno, the grateful patient, is much more memorable the second time around. But as for the basic plot and the way in which the millionaire horse jumping, and Beck's dad, and Beck's sister, and Beck's sister's lesbian lover (why is she Beck's best friend?) are all finally tied together... The movie just wasn't as good the second time around.

[–] hawktwo 9 years ago

The French Embassy hosted the showing I went to. After the movie, there was a free buffet of French food and wine. So I not only loved the movie, I loved the entire evening.

I just rewatched this over the weekend. Wow, so much cheesiness in some of the scenes. Parts of the plot now seem unbelievably strained to make sense. Still a decent love story and thriller.

“One never quite allows for the moron in our midst.” Agatha Christie, The Mirror Crack'd

[–] london777 9 years ago

The film was so well acted and directed (apart from the use of the songs and the cartoonish female torturer who looked as she had wandered in from another movie being filmed on the next lot), that I was happy to go along for the ride. But soon after it ended I realized I had been conned.

I think Canet (or maybe the producers) spoiled the movie by trying to tailor it to the US and Far Eastern markets.

He should have either:

(1) abandoned any attempt to be faithful to the novel and made it a compact neo-noir with many of the characters and some of the "action movie" stuff omitted

or (2) or made the film a lot longer (maybe as a TV mini-series) where all these characters and incidents could have been fleshed out and explained better.

As it is, he fell between two stools. Still worth a watch as there are many good things in it, but misses being the masterpiece it could have been.