Avoid this movie

[deleted]

"The only good thing with it was Sam Neill´s acting".

It´s one of the most awful performances by any male lead actor outside of an Ed Wood movie, ever - all Neill does is mumble incoherently, stumble about and pull all manner of idiotic faces; there isn´t a single scene in the whole film where he doesn´t suck; he looks and generally comes across as Jeremy Irons´s talentless younger brother or something. Of course, Adjani also goes too far off the map occasionally, but overall I guess her hysterical histrionics look just about passable (although no less annoying for it). It appears to me that the film in its entirety is tonally at least somewhat off most of the time - the yelling and violent assaults on various objects of furniture begin soon and abruptly and hardly ever cease. I think Zulawski got the psychological reality of his characters quite straight only occasionally - mostly it´s so overwrought as to be distracting and almost comical. Still think at least some degree of restraint is vital in rendering the horrors horrible enough.

The above don´t mean that I hate the movie though as in the majority of aspects it´s very well made and quite compelling - most notably the photography & the mostly fluid, effortlessly gliding camerawork are great. Also, the concept of Cronenbergian exotic creatures and Lynchian doppelgängers is handled almost as organically & intelligently as the two abovementioned gentlemen handle them in their work. And whenever there´s a more quiet moment, a certain poignancy starts stealing in and the tragic undertone of it all grows to something fairly haunting by the end. And WHAT ending it is - absolutely brilliant, a true aesthetic tour de force. Too bad so much of the film was wasted on the wacko histrionics of the leads (and also - wtf was up with Heinrich´s retarded behaviour in the corridor when he pays a visit to Neill - and the same with that blond woman with her foot in a cast... did they wander onto a wrong set or what, thinking they´re required to perform in some goofy vaudeville or something?) Overall, upon this one viewing, I´d rate it 7/10. Maybe it´ll grow on me with a second viewing... or maybe then not, as it´s probably quite impossible not to be irritated by the constant yelling.



"facts are stupid things" - Ronald Reagan

Certainly have spent 2 hours doing/watching better material, the overacting was irksome. I get it, very traumatic to be involved with a monster. But to have my spouse sign up?...they'll all crazy to start with. No wonder that Wall was shown, to keep marriage-breaking monsters out of the East and in the West where they could be critiqued without a bullet to the head.

[deleted]

Wow, what a tool. I know this post is over a decade old, but still what a dickhead.
This movie wasn't boring at all.
Watch the "Shinig" instead? Nah, no thanks.

I've been saying this about ALL movies. 

WELL, now I'm more than twenty years old - so I'm now pointless and irrelevant as well


My only regret in life is that I'm not someone else - Woody Allen