After a very long hiatus, I felt that this was a review that
I needed to write since I have such contradictory feelings about the movie.
First of all, I had very much appreciated the novel by Emma Donoghue on which
it’s based; so that always makes it tricky.
Then the filmmakers make an odd choice to open with a weird
bit on a contemporary sound stage. I can accept their gamble that it could have
added to the experience (it didn’t), but the only value was drawing unnecessary
attention to the role of people’s beliefs in and need for stories – unnecessary
because the film accomplished that on its own without distracting choices.
The cinematography and acting were quite good, though there
was something about the inside details of the sets that didn’t seem completely
convincing (but that’s just being nitpicky). Far more serious, is that it soon
becomes clear that the soundtrack represented an even greater gamble, and in my
view it was a complete and utter failure. I don’t think it’s an exaggeration to
say that it was the most ill-matched soundtrack I’ve ever heard, and it was a
huge distraction for me. I found that frustrating because I would love to have
overlooked some of the other weaknesses and recommended the film, but I just
don’t think I can. If you do watch, I would seriously consider watching with
the volume very low and the subtitles on.
There were other weaknesses. The relationship between Lib
and Anna and between Anna and Will both contain none of the depth of what was
possible in the book. Partly that could be inevitable. There were moments
between Lib and Anna that nearly broke through but not quite. I don’t think the
screenplay helped. And weirdly played scenes with Lib’s private nightly ritual
and Kitty’s half-hearted attempts to break the 4th wall left me
feeling like this was simply not the film to hand to a director like Lelio; it
was just a poor fit.
The sad thing was that the potential was significant,
especially in the last half hour. There we see the danger and the power of
narrative – ideas that are very important to me. The night I watched, I nearly
wrote off the film because I was disappointed by much and horrified by the
soundtrack. But the potency of its understanding of narrative and release and
inspiration stuck with me and rebounded with energy the next day. I wonder
whether excerpts could have their effect without bothering with the whole film…
In the end, I give it *** with too much that was precious
spilled on bad decisions.