My wife and I finally rented The Unbearable Lightness of Being over the course of last weekend, after several recommendations. I have to say, it was a huge letdown. I mean, I figured, Daniel Day-Lewis and Juliette Binoche, can’t go too wrong with that, right? Wrong.
The movie was tiresome at two hours and interminable at its final length of almost three. There was lots of sex but most of it seemed cold and boring (there were a couple mildly titillating scenes, but they were brief and scattered). There was a frigging military occupation of a city in the middle of the movie, but the way it was done barely piqued my interest.
I sort of wanted to like this movie. I like other movies that fit this general type; historical dramas with erotic overtones. The Pillow Book is a pretty good example, or Henry and June. Those are good movies.
Unbearable Lightness just bored me… both me and my wife actually. It was far too long and seemed like it might have been almost pointless at any length. By the end, it just seemed like it was trying to hard to make a big deal, while saying very little.
So, now that I’ve ranted about it… how did other people feel about it? Did you like it? Not like it? What was it that made you feel that way? I’m usually pretty good at picking up on a movie’s more subtle themes (in fact, I enjoy them more when I do), but did I get whooshed this time? I’m genuinely interested in why some of my friends thought so much of this, and I thought I might test the waters here.
I read the book and saw the movie. Liked them both. I think the sex was MEANT to be cold and boring. This wasn’t a story about sex as much as it was a story about people using sex to try spicing up their monotonous and empty existence.
Tomas is a womanizer, an unsatisfied doctor who wants the stability of marriage, but not the responsibility. Tereza, his wife, is devastated by his infidelity, but she’s too mousy and frightened and love-stricken to handle the problem with much of a degree of finality. Sabina is the “cat”. She likes sex, and she likes using men to get what she wants.
The whole story centers around this love triangle that takes up so much of the central characters’ time and worry that the outside world stops being important, even when there are tanks rolling through it. I think this was the point of the novel. And yes, it’s boring to anyone from the outside looking in … of course, these situations usually are, even in real life. Especially in real life.
A story about lovers in Czechoslovakia during the Prague Spring is always going to be slow and dreary. And overly emotional. I just liked reading about how the characters kept dealing with each day in this messed-up relationship.
No, I didn’t… and the film did little to inspire me to want to read the book. If it’s that much better, though, I may just give it a shot. Milan Kundera, yes?
I kind of figured that the film was trying to express the “real life” aspect. As such, I guess it succeeded, in a way. It didn’t make a very good movie to me, though. I thought In the Bedroom expressed that theme far better.
The book is one of my favorites. Sex is just a tool to these characters. The book actually explains this really well. I’ve heard the movie is just awful, so I’ve always stayed away.
It’s been a looooong time since I’ve seen Unbearable Lightness of Being, but at the time I thought it was excellent.
OTOH, I found Henry and June to be disappointing when I saw it at the time of its release. (Can’t tell you why - that was many years ago too, and it left little impression on me.)
Agree with the poster(s) that the movie is a huge letdown. The book had an intellectual spirit that was absent in the film (the issues of lightness and heaviness, being and nothingness…) There was too much focus on sex, and a lot of the cultural details that made the book interesting were ignored.
And, I was taken aback with Juliette Binoche’s portrayal. Too infantile to be Teresa. I also found the portrayal of their love disappointing starting right from the scene where they meet.
Have I mentioned that overall I was quite disappointed?
The Unbearable Length of This Movie was a letdown for me, too. Several times during the flick I just wanted to shout out to the characters, “Get on with your lives!”
However I thought the book was much better. And I did not let the disappointing experience of the movie dissuade me from reading several other Milan Kundera novels.
This is the only movie which stars Daniel Day-Lewis that I haven’t really liked. Thought both characters were incredibly unlikable. It was so boring I turned it off midway through.
