Once again, the SO and I go see a film that has wretched reviews. I believe Rotten Tomatoes gave it a whopping 18% approval rating.
One of the biggest complaints about the film is that the premise/twist at the end is totally preposterous. I have to admit, that is a plot hole big enough to hold several galaxies with room to spare for a few solar systems.
That said, it was a beautiful film, set in Paris and Venice. Angelina Jolie is gorgeous, and Johnny Depp isn’t hard on the eyes either. The film moves along at a good clip, with some nice action scenes and entertaining banter. Watching it was actually kind of fun and you cannot say it was boring at any point.
But then there are the twists (yes, multiple twists) towards the end. The main surprise, however, will make you roll your eyes so far backwards it will hurt.
Still, audience comments on the way out were very positive. It was a fun, totally mindless diversion. Still, you can’t help wonder, with so many people working on this film, that someone, somewhere, at some point in time, didn’t say, “Hey - about this final twist ending - really?!”
Funny, when I heard the ads for it on the radio, I thought man, this sounds like Anthony Zimmer, a French thriller from 2005. I just checked, so it apparently is a remake of it. Since Anthony Zimmer was pretty much a copy of US style thrillers, we have a US remake of a French movie that was aping US movies. Christ, I think I just lost a neurone.
Good call on Angelina Jolie though, in the original it was Sophie Marceau, and since she never could act, that made a lot of the movie painful to watch. Jolie can pull her weight, I might give it a look, even though I already know the story.
Just saw it last night and had a blast. A love letter to Venice, and Angelina has never been more mysterious or more beautiful. Depp did fine, too, but his British accent at the end was 100% pure Cap’n Jack Sparrow. Paul Bettany was good as the driven detective. I knew nothing of the original French movie before now, and predicted the twist about two-thirds of the way through. But it was still a lot of fun, despite the plot holes and the deus ex machina of Timothy Dalton showing up at just the right time to order the snipers to fire.
I agree, contrary to the Golden Globes voters, that it’s not really a comedy.