I feel like I have just seen a film that could have been truly amazing. It has one of the best romantic couples of the last decade. There were times when I felt I was aboard "Titanic" while watching the two leads fall in love at first sight. Here's one scene where we went beyond some of the truly flabbergasting choices Hollywood sometimes makes. Farrell is truly convincing as the man who can't get what he wants and needs. He finds the girl of his dreams, only to...
Gorgeously photographed, lovingly scored, and almost perfectly cast... Akiva Goldsman has come up with a loving tribute to the power of love, fate, and some other cosmic forces. There are various expressions of love, as one sees man meet his soul mate, parents opt for desperate choices, sisters strengthen a bond, and some unknown forces send us beautiful creatures to help become permanent additions to the tapestry of the heavens.
We follow our hero as he gives a woman the opportunity to enjoy bliss of all kinds in her short stay in this world, with the help of a wonderful Pegasus lookalike, he manages to avoid the forces of evil who attempt to destroy him (a bit of a problem here) because it lessens the beauty of the other plot twists. Maybe it is because this is a film where love is so powerful and beautifully depicted that the villain seems superfluous, and it doesn't help that Crowe goes a bit too far playing whoever he might be. We want him off the screen and yearn to see the other incarnations of pure love and devotion. Connelly is as lovely as ever, Eva Marie Saint is pure warmth, the children are pure innocence, and the two romantic leads just make us wish their love lasted even more.
It all begins at the end of the 19th Century, and it reaches its climax in the 21st Century. Is it a time travel fantasy? It's never fully explained, but it wants us to believe that love and goodness are eternal and worth fighting for. Are we recycling ourselves or just part of a chain that allows us chances to reach our dreams and perfection? It doesn't seem to matter and it's never fully explained. Maybe it's on the pages of the novel this is based on, but it's been almost 30+ years since I felt the kind of romantic magic that Reeves and Seymour put on the screen in "Somewhere in Time" (another dramatic romance with time travel overtones).
The magic is in the leads and the look of the film. Something is either missing or just a bit overshadowed by the magic of the look, sound, and acting in the movie. Maybe there is a much longer version which feels more cohesive and more logical. Maybe it is meant to be felt. There is powerful images in the depiction of the late 19th century. Hollywood films are getting so much better at showing us what people looked like back then. I was afraid the magic would disappear in the contemporary scenes, but here is where the acting becomes more powerful as Farrell discovers what his true purpose in life is, and there is that scene in the frozen lake. I thought "Frozen" was incredible animation, but there is nothing to improve on capturing the beauty of a chilly winter night. The silver and blues will envelope your soul like few images ever have in cinema.
Go and swoon with the leads, and I'm hoping there is more to this feature. Maybe, like "Once Upon a Time in America" we'll discover what this diamond looks like once the work is all finished. This film demands that Mr. Akiva invest a bit more time trying to give us what he might have originally intended.
Gorgeously photographed, lovingly scored, and almost perfectly cast... Akiva Goldsman has come up with a loving tribute to the power of love, fate, and some other cosmic forces. There are various expressions of love, as one sees man meet his soul mate, parents opt for desperate choices, sisters strengthen a bond, and some unknown forces send us beautiful creatures to help become permanent additions to the tapestry of the heavens.
We follow our hero as he gives a woman the opportunity to enjoy bliss of all kinds in her short stay in this world, with the help of a wonderful Pegasus lookalike, he manages to avoid the forces of evil who attempt to destroy him (a bit of a problem here) because it lessens the beauty of the other plot twists. Maybe it is because this is a film where love is so powerful and beautifully depicted that the villain seems superfluous, and it doesn't help that Crowe goes a bit too far playing whoever he might be. We want him off the screen and yearn to see the other incarnations of pure love and devotion. Connelly is as lovely as ever, Eva Marie Saint is pure warmth, the children are pure innocence, and the two romantic leads just make us wish their love lasted even more.
It all begins at the end of the 19th Century, and it reaches its climax in the 21st Century. Is it a time travel fantasy? It's never fully explained, but it wants us to believe that love and goodness are eternal and worth fighting for. Are we recycling ourselves or just part of a chain that allows us chances to reach our dreams and perfection? It doesn't seem to matter and it's never fully explained. Maybe it's on the pages of the novel this is based on, but it's been almost 30+ years since I felt the kind of romantic magic that Reeves and Seymour put on the screen in "Somewhere in Time" (another dramatic romance with time travel overtones).
The magic is in the leads and the look of the film. Something is either missing or just a bit overshadowed by the magic of the look, sound, and acting in the movie. Maybe there is a much longer version which feels more cohesive and more logical. Maybe it is meant to be felt. There is powerful images in the depiction of the late 19th century. Hollywood films are getting so much better at showing us what people looked like back then. I was afraid the magic would disappear in the contemporary scenes, but here is where the acting becomes more powerful as Farrell discovers what his true purpose in life is, and there is that scene in the frozen lake. I thought "Frozen" was incredible animation, but there is nothing to improve on capturing the beauty of a chilly winter night. The silver and blues will envelope your soul like few images ever have in cinema.
Go and swoon with the leads, and I'm hoping there is more to this feature. Maybe, like "Once Upon a Time in America" we'll discover what this diamond looks like once the work is all finished. This film demands that Mr. Akiva invest a bit more time trying to give us what he might have originally intended.