The performances are weak, probably due to lack of strong direction regarding the message of the stories put forth in the play written by Karol Wojtyla (John Paul II). The previous comments were made by someone that clearly didn't "get it" and thus sounds unintelligent and rude. The love put forth for pondering within the story is one of great value, that of the commitment in a marriage. Granted, the movie is weak, even Lancaster, but I encourage everyone to read the original play written by a playwright who obviously felt the love of which he spoke. With the recent passing of the Pontiff, no doubt much of his life before and after becoming Pope will be put to scrutiny even more than when his biography was released in the 1990's. Hopefully those wishing to find out more about him will delve into his theater background, fascinating.
7 Reviews
Worth seeing. Depends on what you like.
Syrchek12 April 2005
Yes, La Bottega dell'orefice is actually a play written by John Paul II, which is what a few people here are constantly emphasizing. And I think that most people that have seen it are linking it's enjoyment with the type of religion that the viewer is coming from.
I really think that it doesn't matter a single bit. If I were someone who from the start dislikes films that are linked to religion in their content I would probably want to avoid this. But I am sure glad I did not. The film really does not have a lot to do with religion. For me the main message of this film was that if we try to truly open our eyes, we will get a chance to fix most of our problems in no time.
I also like the film because it's not pathetic. It tries very hard to be believable and realistic. That is why it pours the viewers mind with hope.
There are still a few imperfections from the way I see it, but mainly on the visual side. As a whole, the film looks more like a TV drama (wich it probably is, I'm not sure). It had good but not great acting, but with great exceptions at a few moments. Overall it's the story and the storytelling that made this film worth seeing for me.
....... - 4/5 .......
I really think that it doesn't matter a single bit. If I were someone who from the start dislikes films that are linked to religion in their content I would probably want to avoid this. But I am sure glad I did not. The film really does not have a lot to do with religion. For me the main message of this film was that if we try to truly open our eyes, we will get a chance to fix most of our problems in no time.
I also like the film because it's not pathetic. It tries very hard to be believable and realistic. That is why it pours the viewers mind with hope.
There are still a few imperfections from the way I see it, but mainly on the visual side. As a whole, the film looks more like a TV drama (wich it probably is, I'm not sure). It had good but not great acting, but with great exceptions at a few moments. Overall it's the story and the storytelling that made this film worth seeing for me.
....... - 4/5 .......
Not Bad, But Could Have Been Better
ldeangelis-7570825 February 2023
Warning: Spoilers
Pope (and saint) John Paul II was a wonderful man and very beloved, but in all honesty, I can't say he was a wonderful fiction writer. (Unless I'm doing him an injustice and his original work was tampered with.) This was a good enough story, but it seemed to not be enough, as if it were originally supposed to be a miniseries and at the last minute they decided on a movie, so a lot had to be cut. There wasn't enough time for character development, the war years were barely touched on, almost as soon as Theresa (Olivia Hussey) and Andre (Andrea Occhipinti) are married, she's a widow with a two-year-old son, Christophe. Then, years have gone by and
Christophe's a young man (Jonathan Crombie) in love.
The same with the other couple in the film, Stepane (Ben Cross) and Anna (Jo Champa). They got married, moved to Canada, and then time's gone by, their daughter, Monica (Melora Hardin) is preparing for a career in dance, and in love with Christophe.
The conflict in the story is that Stepane and Anna have grown apart, despite still loving each other, but their arguments and unhappiness have affected Monica, who is afraid to commit to Christophe.
Everything happens too fast, including things working out for both couples, and despite liking Burt Lancaster, I didn't feel that either he or the jeweler's shop had the impact they should have had.
The movie had a good message about love that lasts and how things are never as bad as they may seem, but the whole thing just needed more time and substance.
The same with the other couple in the film, Stepane (Ben Cross) and Anna (Jo Champa). They got married, moved to Canada, and then time's gone by, their daughter, Monica (Melora Hardin) is preparing for a career in dance, and in love with Christophe.
The conflict in the story is that Stepane and Anna have grown apart, despite still loving each other, but their arguments and unhappiness have affected Monica, who is afraid to commit to Christophe.
Everything happens too fast, including things working out for both couples, and despite liking Burt Lancaster, I didn't feel that either he or the jeweler's shop had the impact they should have had.
The movie had a good message about love that lasts and how things are never as bad as they may seem, but the whole thing just needed more time and substance.
Need for Stories Like "The Jeweller"
elle-6926 February 2011
It has been quite a culture shock, in only 50 years, so many of our basics - including our feelings about marriage - turned about and pointed in the other direction entirely!
This film endeavors to address it all and it does - in a helpful, sensitive and entertaining fashion.
Not long ago, Marriage was assumed to be the natural and most desirable path for any decent person. Then came the population explosions, and upgrading of human rights/responsibilities in all directions and social experiments running rampant, with human guinea pigs for the project.
Changing approaches to marriage has been one of these experiments. The human experience sources partly in the wonder of the special relationship of TWO - but today, people do exactly as the young couple in the story - they express doubt - they ask "why ?"
And that is the thing: not all that long ago no one would wonder about marriage - it was half the foundation of adult life. To question marriage would be a horrifying prospect. And today it is much more than a questioning - it is often a casting off of marriage - this new reality - and those coming of age are even happy with this sad idea !
The Jeweler's Shop is not perfect. Criticize the film for "missing it" in places but films like this and NEEDED and more of them.
Technically, the story is an allegory or even a parable of sorts, since it has a moral and lesson for us, and many of its mechanics are simplified to empower the moral.
And yet it was written so it could be simply enjoyed for its story without the moral message coming on too heavily. And we were entertained. Nice.
Would I have watched this film if it had not been written by Pope John Paul II in his theater arts days? I don't know.
But, it was lovely! Thank you...Dzien cuje!
This film endeavors to address it all and it does - in a helpful, sensitive and entertaining fashion.
Not long ago, Marriage was assumed to be the natural and most desirable path for any decent person. Then came the population explosions, and upgrading of human rights/responsibilities in all directions and social experiments running rampant, with human guinea pigs for the project.
Changing approaches to marriage has been one of these experiments. The human experience sources partly in the wonder of the special relationship of TWO - but today, people do exactly as the young couple in the story - they express doubt - they ask "why ?"
And that is the thing: not all that long ago no one would wonder about marriage - it was half the foundation of adult life. To question marriage would be a horrifying prospect. And today it is much more than a questioning - it is often a casting off of marriage - this new reality - and those coming of age are even happy with this sad idea !
The Jeweler's Shop is not perfect. Criticize the film for "missing it" in places but films like this and NEEDED and more of them.
Technically, the story is an allegory or even a parable of sorts, since it has a moral and lesson for us, and many of its mechanics are simplified to empower the moral.
And yet it was written so it could be simply enjoyed for its story without the moral message coming on too heavily. And we were entertained. Nice.
Would I have watched this film if it had not been written by Pope John Paul II in his theater arts days? I don't know.
But, it was lovely! Thank you...Dzien cuje!
This will be viewed mainly as a curiosity based on the writer.
mark.waltz15 December 2022
Warning: Spoilers
This seems like a movie made during the Golden era of hollywood, made between 1933 and 1958, and in fact, there is a reference to Clark Gable in a conversation about love and marriage. It starts off in Poland as the Nazis are taking power, and switches to Canada in 1962 where the couple from the first part of the film end up, now unhappily married, their marital issues affecting the children from their marriage and from a good friend who lives nearby. I was not familiar with any of the leading actors in The cast, and in fact, it was the presence of Burt Lancaster that attracted me to this film in the first place. One of his last movies, he has a cameo as the wise old man, perhaps a throwback to the character that John Barrymore is offered in a play in the movie "Dinner at Eight", the character who disappears early in the play and never appears again until the finale.
The film is presented in a very dramatic way with music swelling throughout, dealing with a female musician in Poland, ending up in Canada with her doctor husband after the Nazis take over, and their daughter ends up a ballerina, in love with the son of their best friend, but troubled in the relationship because of what she sees as problems in her parents marriage. It's obvious that he is having an affair, but that is never detailed, and in fact, there seems to be a lot edited out from the play by the author, best known to the world as Pope John Paul II.
Certainly, this is a gorgeous film to look at, and while very cliched in the sense of how old movies portrayed marital problems and dealt with multi-generational stories, it is never boring. The performances are basically adequate, and the issues that happen in the missing 20 years make you wonder what really lead to the unhappiness of this couple, so obviously in love in the early 1940's, yet barely tolerating each other as the years go by. I find it interesting that a man who devoted his life to God and the church would write something about a sacrament that he didn't experience himself. Perhaps his love of the movies that he saw as a young adult gave him the same that he wrote, but this certainly would not be a classic love story in 1988. It's something that could have been on the screen in 1945 with Merle Oberon and Paul Henried, with Claude Rains in the Burt Lancaster role and a young Ann Blyth playing the daughter. Definitely something worthy for TCM or the old fashioned late show than the hip late 1980's.
The film is presented in a very dramatic way with music swelling throughout, dealing with a female musician in Poland, ending up in Canada with her doctor husband after the Nazis take over, and their daughter ends up a ballerina, in love with the son of their best friend, but troubled in the relationship because of what she sees as problems in her parents marriage. It's obvious that he is having an affair, but that is never detailed, and in fact, there seems to be a lot edited out from the play by the author, best known to the world as Pope John Paul II.
Certainly, this is a gorgeous film to look at, and while very cliched in the sense of how old movies portrayed marital problems and dealt with multi-generational stories, it is never boring. The performances are basically adequate, and the issues that happen in the missing 20 years make you wonder what really lead to the unhappiness of this couple, so obviously in love in the early 1940's, yet barely tolerating each other as the years go by. I find it interesting that a man who devoted his life to God and the church would write something about a sacrament that he didn't experience himself. Perhaps his love of the movies that he saw as a young adult gave him the same that he wrote, but this certainly would not be a classic love story in 1988. It's something that could have been on the screen in 1945 with Merle Oberon and Paul Henried, with Claude Rains in the Burt Lancaster role and a young Ann Blyth playing the daughter. Definitely something worthy for TCM or the old fashioned late show than the hip late 1980's.
A real oddity...a story written by John Paul II and starring an avowed atheist!
planktonrules11 September 2023
"The Jeweller's Shop" is a film with a strange pedigree...it was written by John Paul II. And, as I watched the film, I couldn't help but think that it was good he stuck with poping, as his story wasn't all that interesting nor enjoyable.
Another unusual thing about the film is that one of the stars of the film is Burt Lancaster, who was an avowed atheist and the last actor I would have imagined in a film written by a Pope.
The story is a very dull story about two couples who meet and fall in love in pre-WWII Poland. One couple fortunately move to Canada after marrying, though their marriage is dead. Another have a tough time. He is killed in the war and eventually she immigrates to Canada. The film then follows the exploits of her son in his upcoming marriage.
The story is dull. Very dull. Lancaster, though a fine actor, has very little to do and seems wasted. Overall, it's a story I really had a hard time sticking with. It's a case of some good actors and a rather limp script. As I said, it's good he went in to poping, because as a writer, he just in his forte.
Another unusual thing about the film is that one of the stars of the film is Burt Lancaster, who was an avowed atheist and the last actor I would have imagined in a film written by a Pope.
The story is a very dull story about two couples who meet and fall in love in pre-WWII Poland. One couple fortunately move to Canada after marrying, though their marriage is dead. Another have a tough time. He is killed in the war and eventually she immigrates to Canada. The film then follows the exploits of her son in his upcoming marriage.
The story is dull. Very dull. Lancaster, though a fine actor, has very little to do and seems wasted. Overall, it's a story I really had a hard time sticking with. It's a case of some good actors and a rather limp script. As I said, it's good he went in to poping, because as a writer, he just in his forte.
A feel good old fashioned romantic movie
KoalaBear338 July 2001
Having problems in your relationship? Then perhaps you should view this movie. This is an old fashioned romantic movie that will leave you happy at the end. It basically centers on a jewelery shop in Poland where two couples meet and then follows their lives afterwards. I don't think there is anything spectacular about the movie yet I loved it for some unexplainable reason :) Maybe it has to do with the fact that it is a somewhat touching movie that ends up cheering you. This isn't an Oscar quality movie but is worth checking if you have an opportunity and are in a romantic mood.
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