For me, Past Life was generally far too melodramatic for modern audiences. It also felt tonally inconsistent in a very odd way, which generally undercut the story as a whole. I'd blame the director. Even if it is a reflection of the source material, the director's job is to figure out what story he's telling, and I don't think this director ever quite figured that out.
On the positive side, the lead actress was strong and appealing; the production values were high; and if you like choral singing, there was a lot of it. And the story moved along without slow spots.
On the negative side, the movie was eliciting odd reactions from me. A character intended to be nice and sympathetic and possibly romantic came across as a young Nosferatu. The girl's mother was always looming silently in the background, wringing her hands, occasionally with a nosebleed.
The movie had a number of shocks and revelations, but they were not generally that shocking or revelatory. There were endless crises: a medical crisis! A search through archives, but we're running out of time! An imagining someone naked scene, and on and on. A lot of shouting and hysteria. Overall, the movie just felt forced.
There were other annoyances. Much was made of a "diary" written by the father. On the first entry, "1 September 1939", he writes about events to come over the next five years. Sorry, that's not a diary. (Perhaps the subtitler ought to have chosen the word memoir, but it was grating.)
On the positive side, the lead actress was strong and appealing; the production values were high; and if you like choral singing, there was a lot of it. And the story moved along without slow spots.
On the negative side, the movie was eliciting odd reactions from me. A character intended to be nice and sympathetic and possibly romantic came across as a young Nosferatu. The girl's mother was always looming silently in the background, wringing her hands, occasionally with a nosebleed.
The movie had a number of shocks and revelations, but they were not generally that shocking or revelatory. There were endless crises: a medical crisis! A search through archives, but we're running out of time! An imagining someone naked scene, and on and on. A lot of shouting and hysteria. Overall, the movie just felt forced.
There were other annoyances. Much was made of a "diary" written by the father. On the first entry, "1 September 1939", he writes about events to come over the next five years. Sorry, that's not a diary. (Perhaps the subtitler ought to have chosen the word memoir, but it was grating.)