This is definitely the kind of movie you have to watch more times to actually get a remote idea of what it could mean to you.
This is not a flaw by any means, and I especially love those movies that play on symbolism, allegory and interpretation without giving exact answers. This one especially makes explicit reference to Gothic and Expressionist Cinema, and also literary works, with the most evident being Thomas Mann's ones, but it reminded me also of HEART OF DARKNESS by Conrad, PHANTOM OF THE OPERA and the fairytale of DONKEYSKIN
But since the first shot, I couldn't help but feel disoriented by the impact and greatness of the scenes: this is excellent camera work, but it also made me think of a big style excercise from Verbinski, whom I always liked as director.
Some scenes were really intriguing and evocative, like when Lockhart finally meets Pembroke in the sauna, or some scenes where he explores the sanatorium, or even when Hannah is in the pub with the locals and starts dancing and discovering more about her body, and also in the finale with that wonderful parallelism between her and Lockhart both descending the stairs towards the pool, and she has menstruations surrounded by eels, but many others seemed only to say "Ehy, look how majestic this movie can be!"
Also, but this might just be a minor nitpick, I couldn't stand the too obvious CGI used to make the deer and the eels, they seemed to much fake to me, and that is clear given the relatively small budget. And that goes for Isaac's final makeup too, that was just too much.
This is one of Verbinski's most personal works, if not THE most personal, and maybe it's because of this that he kinda lost his way of telling the story, which was always one of his better qualities as director, whether in more commercial movies like the PIRATES trilogy or more personal like RANGO.
Like others said, the movie cannot be lauded just on the basis of its almost impeccable technical side, or because of the actors' performances, in particular that by Mia Goth.
Also, I didn't have any problem with the running time, which I did not find excessively long like many said, and the screenplay was actually pretty good, but still confusing and incomplete without a real reason, at least for me.
I don't know how many times I'll have to go back to the sanatorium, and being exposed to the Cure, but I guess it won't hurt, and could tell me more about what I'm looking for ... but who knows?
This is not a flaw by any means, and I especially love those movies that play on symbolism, allegory and interpretation without giving exact answers. This one especially makes explicit reference to Gothic and Expressionist Cinema, and also literary works, with the most evident being Thomas Mann's ones, but it reminded me also of HEART OF DARKNESS by Conrad, PHANTOM OF THE OPERA and the fairytale of DONKEYSKIN
But since the first shot, I couldn't help but feel disoriented by the impact and greatness of the scenes: this is excellent camera work, but it also made me think of a big style excercise from Verbinski, whom I always liked as director.
Some scenes were really intriguing and evocative, like when Lockhart finally meets Pembroke in the sauna, or some scenes where he explores the sanatorium, or even when Hannah is in the pub with the locals and starts dancing and discovering more about her body, and also in the finale with that wonderful parallelism between her and Lockhart both descending the stairs towards the pool, and she has menstruations surrounded by eels, but many others seemed only to say "Ehy, look how majestic this movie can be!"
Also, but this might just be a minor nitpick, I couldn't stand the too obvious CGI used to make the deer and the eels, they seemed to much fake to me, and that is clear given the relatively small budget. And that goes for Isaac's final makeup too, that was just too much.
This is one of Verbinski's most personal works, if not THE most personal, and maybe it's because of this that he kinda lost his way of telling the story, which was always one of his better qualities as director, whether in more commercial movies like the PIRATES trilogy or more personal like RANGO.
Like others said, the movie cannot be lauded just on the basis of its almost impeccable technical side, or because of the actors' performances, in particular that by Mia Goth.
Also, I didn't have any problem with the running time, which I did not find excessively long like many said, and the screenplay was actually pretty good, but still confusing and incomplete without a real reason, at least for me.
I don't know how many times I'll have to go back to the sanatorium, and being exposed to the Cure, but I guess it won't hurt, and could tell me more about what I'm looking for ... but who knows?