When the Netflix algorithm recommended this film, I clicked on the "more info" button and wouldn't you know it, within 15 seconds the actual movie started to roll. Well, there at the start was the Warner Brothers logo so, yes, I assumed this would be a serious, well-made film. No more due diligence needed.
What a mistake. The movie is not really about a Catholic School, though a school in Rome in the summer of 1975 is the setting for many scenes. Nor are the first three quarters of the movie about the horrific crime hinted at in the trailer. It's more about six or seven spoiled and indulged upper middle class boys -- I needed a scorecard to keep track of them -- and the various mini-dramas they and their families get into. The narrator, a junior at the school, does not help matters with his ponderous, pretentious voice overs trying to explain the meaning of male-ness in that place and time. Also confusing: jumps in time from "40 days before" the opening scene to "three hours before" then to "10 hours before," etc.
Then there is the crime itself. The scenes are nauseatingly graphic. Sheer exploitation. It would be NC-17 if it had a rating.
It would have better to focus exclusively on the crime and lead up, and done so in a more sensitive way. You know, old fashioned stuff like motives, backgrounds of the perpetrators, extenuating factors. Maybe more about the victims. Forget the other 10 or 12 characters.
Or....
Turn the whole mess into a six- or seven-part series. It is based on a true story and a novel of +1200 pages, so one hour and 45 minutes does not do it justice.
This movie had such great potential. It is a shame the producers coughed up this mess. And blame too goes to Netflix or buying such dreck.
What a mistake. The movie is not really about a Catholic School, though a school in Rome in the summer of 1975 is the setting for many scenes. Nor are the first three quarters of the movie about the horrific crime hinted at in the trailer. It's more about six or seven spoiled and indulged upper middle class boys -- I needed a scorecard to keep track of them -- and the various mini-dramas they and their families get into. The narrator, a junior at the school, does not help matters with his ponderous, pretentious voice overs trying to explain the meaning of male-ness in that place and time. Also confusing: jumps in time from "40 days before" the opening scene to "three hours before" then to "10 hours before," etc.
Then there is the crime itself. The scenes are nauseatingly graphic. Sheer exploitation. It would be NC-17 if it had a rating.
It would have better to focus exclusively on the crime and lead up, and done so in a more sensitive way. You know, old fashioned stuff like motives, backgrounds of the perpetrators, extenuating factors. Maybe more about the victims. Forget the other 10 or 12 characters.
Or....
Turn the whole mess into a six- or seven-part series. It is based on a true story and a novel of +1200 pages, so one hour and 45 minutes does not do it justice.
This movie had such great potential. It is a shame the producers coughed up this mess. And blame too goes to Netflix or buying such dreck.