Starring: Colin Farrell, Jessica Brown Findlay, Jennifer Connelly, Russell Crowe
Director: Akiva Goldsman
Genre: Supernatural drama
Running Time: 118 minutes
Now showing at The Hub, Oasis Mall
Mark Helprin’s poetic novel, Winter’s Tale, is brought to the big screen thanks to Akiva Goldsman, a film writer who cut his directing teeth with this one.
In the movie, Peter Lake (Colin Farrell) was raised by a demon, ironically called Pearly Soames (Russell Crowe), who found him as a baby, floating on a boat in New York and has mentored him as a thief. In 1916, Lake escapes Soames’ gang with the help of a white horse, aptly named Horse. Horse convinces Lake to steal one more time, and that is when he meets Beverly Penn (Jessica Brown Findlay). The two fall in love and the movie goes on to show us how there is a miracle for everyone.
If you have read the book, there are high expectations since Helprin weaves such an enchanting story. The movie, which takes place over a period of more than 100 years tries to do this through the cinematography, thanks to Caleb Deschanel who manipulates the light to capture, Horse’s guardian angel essence, Beverly’s bright aura and Lucifer’s (Will Smith) dark one. Farrell and Findlay’s chemistry is also sweet, which makes the first half of the movie captivating.
But when the movie jumps from 1916 to 2014, it gets dull. Jennifer Connelly as Virginia Gamely is not as endearing as Findlay, the new woman in Lake’s life. The plots is also unnecessarily slow. Thank God for the KT Tunstall and Hans Zimmer’s music, which makes it easier to keep awake during these scenes.
Since it is Goldsman’s first as a director, maybe he shouldn’t be judged too harshly, but even as a writer, some of his previous work like Batman and Robin was lacking. If only only he had drunk whatever he did when he wrote A Beautiful Mind, now that was a good film adaptation!
