This is both exquisitely rich and frustratingly lacking.
It's so beautifully made. Rich in detail, with all of the elements in place. Yet after the initial set up, it meanders. The journey is so slow that it's simply wasted screentime. Scenes occur without purpose. Any development of character or story is so minimalistic that it could have been done in fifteen minutes.
You could easily watch the first twenty minutes and turn the sound off until the final fifteen. It's more of a series of alluringly themed images than a film.
This approach worked better in Bright Star, a film about a poet who saw the beauty around him. While Campion has always focused on environmental factors, those little details and moments that make her films so sumptuous, here it stagnates.
The shift, when it comes, doesn't feel natural for the character's journey. Particularly that of Cumberbatch. There's no real indication of why he goes from one set of behaviors to another, other than his deep-seated inclinations. Without wishing to add spoilers, it just doesn't feel natural or realistic. Especially after watching him at work in that first twenty minutes.
It does come together, in a way, in the finale but it's such a ponderous, unnecessary wait. Great opportunities have been wasted here.
Campion is a highly talented filmmaker, no question. But the screenplay is very thin. The other characters never shift. Never develop. And there's no real resolution for them either. There's literally nothing else going on beyond the set up and the final ten minutes. It's an overlong short film at best.
Still worth watching, just for the camera's gaze and the detailed production design.
It's so beautifully made. Rich in detail, with all of the elements in place. Yet after the initial set up, it meanders. The journey is so slow that it's simply wasted screentime. Scenes occur without purpose. Any development of character or story is so minimalistic that it could have been done in fifteen minutes.
You could easily watch the first twenty minutes and turn the sound off until the final fifteen. It's more of a series of alluringly themed images than a film.
This approach worked better in Bright Star, a film about a poet who saw the beauty around him. While Campion has always focused on environmental factors, those little details and moments that make her films so sumptuous, here it stagnates.
The shift, when it comes, doesn't feel natural for the character's journey. Particularly that of Cumberbatch. There's no real indication of why he goes from one set of behaviors to another, other than his deep-seated inclinations. Without wishing to add spoilers, it just doesn't feel natural or realistic. Especially after watching him at work in that first twenty minutes.
It does come together, in a way, in the finale but it's such a ponderous, unnecessary wait. Great opportunities have been wasted here.
Campion is a highly talented filmmaker, no question. But the screenplay is very thin. The other characters never shift. Never develop. And there's no real resolution for them either. There's literally nothing else going on beyond the set up and the final ten minutes. It's an overlong short film at best.
Still worth watching, just for the camera's gaze and the detailed production design.