I thought this movie was an unrelieved exhibition of cruelty to animals, and I frankly couldn't stand it. I understand it portrayed the reality of the time, and perhaps some children will come away from it determined to boycott "wild" animal shows, which would be a good thing. But I just couldn't stand to watch it - and of course, the portions with mostly human interaction were simply dreadful for another reason - amateurish and boring, mainly. My mother and I walked out after an hour and ten minutes, after the animal body count, and scenes of torturing Kumar with fire to make him jump through a hoop just got to be too much for us. Perhaps others have stronger stomachs.
Reviews
4 Reviews
A fabulous movie
15 November 2003
A thoughtful, masterful evocation of the age of sail, and a quietly gripping story. Performances are wonderful. Weir does not resort to audience manipulation through music score or bloodshed - he expects the audience to pay attention and keep up. It may be too much to ask of American audiences today, but I hope not. Crowe, Bettany and the rest are wonderful, and this movie fully realizes the spirit, if not the letter, of Patrick O'Brian's novels. A wonderful movie for the ages - but it's not a video game.
Under the Sand
(2000)
A terrific film
6 July 2002
I just saw this film on cable last night, and thought it was wonderful - extremely moving, almost terrifying at times. Charlotte Rampling gave what was truly one of the two or three best, if not the best, performances by an actress in 2000 (take that, Julia Roberts). Extremely affecting, and highly recommended. However, I am confused by the cast list - I could have sworn that the actress playing Marie's best friend was Gena Rowlands, but she's not listed anywhere, so I'm not sure it was her after all. A great movie, rent it if you haven't seen it.
In the Bedroom
(2001)
Good but not great - spoilers!
8 January 2002
Warning: Spoilers
I thought this was a good, but not a great film - the best things about it are the performances of Spacek, Wilkinson and Tomei, which are enough to see it for. But the plot takes too many implausible turns, which diminish its emotional force.
SPOILER***** Warning!
I thought the actor playing the son was too callow to be attractive to Marisa Tomei's character, and I was totally unconvinced that the father's friend would be drawn into a murder plot - that needed to be much more the center of the story to make it believable (see A Simple Plan, for example). I thought the focus got pretty muddled before the end, and simply leaving it the way they did was very unsatisfying - unclear to me what the father's real consequences of becoming a murderer were going to be - I suppose not any, perhaps, but in that case the ending was too ambiguous to even make that a point. Nonetheless, Tom Wilkinson was particularly wonderful, and it will be criminal if he doesn't get an Oscar nomination for this.
SPOILER***** Warning!
I thought the actor playing the son was too callow to be attractive to Marisa Tomei's character, and I was totally unconvinced that the father's friend would be drawn into a murder plot - that needed to be much more the center of the story to make it believable (see A Simple Plan, for example). I thought the focus got pretty muddled before the end, and simply leaving it the way they did was very unsatisfying - unclear to me what the father's real consequences of becoming a murderer were going to be - I suppose not any, perhaps, but in that case the ending was too ambiguous to even make that a point. Nonetheless, Tom Wilkinson was particularly wonderful, and it will be criminal if he doesn't get an Oscar nomination for this.
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