So as much as I try to find something wonderful in every film I see, I just can't with this.
I'd give it a higher score if it hadn't been for the fact that this is the same writer/director who created Little Children and In the Bedroom clearly has an understanding of structure, pace, character arcs and development- so there's no excuse for this.
I knew I was in trouble when the audience is forced to sit through 10 minutes of credits, starting at what is usually the back end, at the front of the film. I get where he's going "these people count too so sit your butt down and read who was the prop master in the second unit in Berlin". Sorry, we really don't care. That's why they go at the end.
The rest was downhill from there.
Our protagonist Lydia Tar is a self-indulgent bore. And for a film that's a character study (I guess) I never felt like I knew her or even wanted to know her.
There were a ton threads that went nowhere and countless scenes talking about music but not much music. Which felt like the writer was talking down to us uncultured dummies.
Cate Blanchet is a miracle worker but I actually felt her work in this was forced and inorganic- like she was trying on a suit that didn't really fit.
But the worst for me was when something (anything) finally happened it was followed by scene after disjointed scene where NOTHING happens AGAIN. So much so, that I actually began to get irritable when SOMETHING happened because I knew it wouldn't go anywhere and I'd have to endure another round of pretentious talking and doing nothing scenes. Like a never ending loop of "yay! Something happened!" Follows by a valley of emptiness.
Sadly, I, like another reviewer, googled the running time in the theatre. Then sent a text to my friend sitting next to me saying "Should we go? It's almost 3 friggin hours long?" Of which he wrote back "I can't. I dropped my wallet under the seat. Gotta wait for the lights to come on." Yup. It's that bad.
I'd give it a higher score if it hadn't been for the fact that this is the same writer/director who created Little Children and In the Bedroom clearly has an understanding of structure, pace, character arcs and development- so there's no excuse for this.
I knew I was in trouble when the audience is forced to sit through 10 minutes of credits, starting at what is usually the back end, at the front of the film. I get where he's going "these people count too so sit your butt down and read who was the prop master in the second unit in Berlin". Sorry, we really don't care. That's why they go at the end.
The rest was downhill from there.
Our protagonist Lydia Tar is a self-indulgent bore. And for a film that's a character study (I guess) I never felt like I knew her or even wanted to know her.
There were a ton threads that went nowhere and countless scenes talking about music but not much music. Which felt like the writer was talking down to us uncultured dummies.
Cate Blanchet is a miracle worker but I actually felt her work in this was forced and inorganic- like she was trying on a suit that didn't really fit.
But the worst for me was when something (anything) finally happened it was followed by scene after disjointed scene where NOTHING happens AGAIN. So much so, that I actually began to get irritable when SOMETHING happened because I knew it wouldn't go anywhere and I'd have to endure another round of pretentious talking and doing nothing scenes. Like a never ending loop of "yay! Something happened!" Follows by a valley of emptiness.
Sadly, I, like another reviewer, googled the running time in the theatre. Then sent a text to my friend sitting next to me saying "Should we go? It's almost 3 friggin hours long?" Of which he wrote back "I can't. I dropped my wallet under the seat. Gotta wait for the lights to come on." Yup. It's that bad.
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