L'albero degli zoccoli definitely has it's virtues. Acting, especially when taking to consideration that the actors are all amateurs, is superb, just as the cinematography. The script has it's moments, but overall, it's way too slack to hold up the whole 3 hours.
Alltough it's fiction, it still feels more like an over-sized historical document. There's like an hour worth of unneeded material, which do not bring practically anything crucial to the movie. Most important of all, the characters do not develop during the whole time in any direction. It just jams on and on, without bringing any new aspects to the characters. It has some fantastic scenes, but in the end, they drown in to it's enormous amount of material.
So why the seven stars? Well, like I said, the acting is superb, not to mention the filming. With a lot harsher touch on the cuttingboard, it would have been worth 8, or even 9 in my books.
Alltough it's fiction, it still feels more like an over-sized historical document. There's like an hour worth of unneeded material, which do not bring practically anything crucial to the movie. Most important of all, the characters do not develop during the whole time in any direction. It just jams on and on, without bringing any new aspects to the characters. It has some fantastic scenes, but in the end, they drown in to it's enormous amount of material.
So why the seven stars? Well, like I said, the acting is superb, not to mention the filming. With a lot harsher touch on the cuttingboard, it would have been worth 8, or even 9 in my books.