Beautifully shot and very well acted by a large cast that includes Daniel Day Lewis and Jim Broadbent. This is an attempt to make Franz Kafka the man, a supporting character in a story with the feel of his writings; the nightmarish surreal confusion and darkness. (Steven Soderbergh did something somewhat similar in his film 'Kafka', but that was far more surreal and baroque, and less a social statement, and Kafka was at the center of the tale).
In this case it's the world of insurance covering industrial accidents, the world in which Kafka did in fact earn his living. There are trenchant and often darkly funny observations on the abuses of the industrial world of those that labor in it, and the absurdity built into the system of insurance, working to insure that the majority of people will simply give up on ever collecting.
In 1945, with Prague under Nazi control a man dying from asbestos destroyed lungs tells his doctor of how many years earlier as a young man (Robert Hines) he sought help for a skin condition brought on by his work in a dye factory, ending up being helped by Kafka.
While there is a lot to admire here, I did find the tone a bit wobbly, and some of the themes and ideas more heavy-handedly overstated (or re-stated) than might have been needed. At least on first viewing it worked slightly better as an idea than as a finished piece. I enjoyed seeing Alan Bennett stretch himself as a writer and director Richard Eyre's eye for noir-like nightmare images, but in the end, I didn't find the whole that emotional or impactful. More interesting than involving.
That said, it is dense enough that it may well improve on a 2nd visit. Certainly the professional critical response was of a very high order.
In this case it's the world of insurance covering industrial accidents, the world in which Kafka did in fact earn his living. There are trenchant and often darkly funny observations on the abuses of the industrial world of those that labor in it, and the absurdity built into the system of insurance, working to insure that the majority of people will simply give up on ever collecting.
In 1945, with Prague under Nazi control a man dying from asbestos destroyed lungs tells his doctor of how many years earlier as a young man (Robert Hines) he sought help for a skin condition brought on by his work in a dye factory, ending up being helped by Kafka.
While there is a lot to admire here, I did find the tone a bit wobbly, and some of the themes and ideas more heavy-handedly overstated (or re-stated) than might have been needed. At least on first viewing it worked slightly better as an idea than as a finished piece. I enjoyed seeing Alan Bennett stretch himself as a writer and director Richard Eyre's eye for noir-like nightmare images, but in the end, I didn't find the whole that emotional or impactful. More interesting than involving.
That said, it is dense enough that it may well improve on a 2nd visit. Certainly the professional critical response was of a very high order.