Good acting , filming and storytelling but not easy to follow. Or was that just me. The story jumps from era to era and the queues are not easy to pick up. They are there but...I won't discuss a major clue as it may spoil it for some. The novel is very long and no doubt had opportunity to fill in where the film did not. Nevertheless, apart from two glaring flaws I'll stick with Camilla, for now.
2 Reviews
Too Many Balls in the Air
Warin_West-El10 January 2023
Warning: Spoilers
No doubt this story is far better suited as a novel than as a two-part film. There were far too many pieces to keep track of. Furthermore, the filmmaker added too many personal side stories.
Why did we need to see repetitive footage of the Police Captain not getting along with his son? It was a meaningless excursion to nowhere that failed to advance the main plot one iota.
As if that distraction wasn't enough, then we have the older incompetent police detective who essentially acts as human constipation and bottlenecks progress to the point of getting people killed. Where did all of THAT nonsense go? Nowhere.
If you're going to tell a tale that spans generations AND do it in just two episodes, you haven't got a moment to waste with nonsensical filler footage. EVERYTHING must reinforce the main story and there must be clear delineations of when a time period has changed. Amazingly enough there were NO dissolve shots (the standard film idiom for a time shift). Straight cuts from one generation to another is downright confusing. Especially if you continue to use straight cuts within the same time period.
The actors were good. But the story was REALLY hard to follow and full of misdirections. Which is sad because, underneath it all was a great story - the psychopathic matriarch. The filmmakers should have spent much more time developing that character than they did.
This was SUPPOSED to be a murder mystery. But the filmmakers turned it into a confusing version of Peyton Place. I feel cheated.
Why did we need to see repetitive footage of the Police Captain not getting along with his son? It was a meaningless excursion to nowhere that failed to advance the main plot one iota.
As if that distraction wasn't enough, then we have the older incompetent police detective who essentially acts as human constipation and bottlenecks progress to the point of getting people killed. Where did all of THAT nonsense go? Nowhere.
If you're going to tell a tale that spans generations AND do it in just two episodes, you haven't got a moment to waste with nonsensical filler footage. EVERYTHING must reinforce the main story and there must be clear delineations of when a time period has changed. Amazingly enough there were NO dissolve shots (the standard film idiom for a time shift). Straight cuts from one generation to another is downright confusing. Especially if you continue to use straight cuts within the same time period.
The actors were good. But the story was REALLY hard to follow and full of misdirections. Which is sad because, underneath it all was a great story - the psychopathic matriarch. The filmmakers should have spent much more time developing that character than they did.
This was SUPPOSED to be a murder mystery. But the filmmakers turned it into a confusing version of Peyton Place. I feel cheated.
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