Thumbs Down

Yes, this film was sheer boredom.

I read the play -by Chekov- myself and I must admit that I acctually liked it but, as for this adaptation I just could not feel the same. I was very surprised to see that I was awake for even 45 minutes myself let alone the 20 minutes you've seen through. I just could not like this film because it did not at feel at all like we (the audience) were watching very intimate situations that were happening amoungst the household members. The actors -Julian Moore & Wallace Shawn(sorry buddy)- were all spouting a bunch of lines an did not bring any life or do justice to Vanya's and Yelna's characters.Where tension was in the play -like in act 2 where Vanya is alone with Yelna confessing his deep desire for her but, Yelna constantly pushes Vanya away- were drained of all its life in this movie because the actors chose to play it safe by adding no anger or desperation to their characters dialouge. Julian moore's performance as Yelna was so one dimensional because in every scene she would be smiling ever so fakely, and she maneges to do this throughout the whole film. I don't believe this film had any dramatic tension
-which is the basis of any good drama- because I couldn't keep awake to see if there was any. I really wanted to stay awake but, this films slow pacing and low energy was too overwhelming and Chekov's Uncle Vanya is anything but slow pacing and low energy.

Truly sad that this movie had to happen.


However if there is anything postive to say about this film. Its this, Brooke Smith portrayle of Sonya was spot on. I could definately feel her express Sonya's emotions truthfully ecspecially in the scene where she tries to get the right medicine that Serebryakov wants.

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Oh, pshaw!

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You remind me of herr professor, talking about that of which you know less than nothing.
The movie and its pacing seems perfect for me. If you don't like it you don't like it, but
taking on airs that it is because the movie is bad, or somehow defective and not just a
matter of your taste or attention deficit disorder is undeserved.

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The danger in adapting plays to film is that plays have heightened language, and film forces you to minimalize the language for the camera.

100% of the dialogue in the play was used in the film, and the translation used was a magnificently accurate and richly poetic translation by Vlada Chernomordik, which David Mamet adapted for stage, without changing one single beat.

This film was not created to be a video recording of a staged play. The film was created for the cast to possess a digital memory of all the hard work they invested in their four years of rehearsals, and Malle's approach to the recording was to explore not only the symbiotic relationship between stage and cinema, but to explore what is known in the academic world as the phenomenon and effect of mediated theatre.

The energy and pacing in this film was sluggish. Without the timing, you lose the comedy

All productions of Vanya, stage and cinema and radio, of Vanya are paced slowly, because whether or not Chekhov liked it (and he didn't....), Vanya was and still is a heavy drama first, drozing with a despairing mood and adagio pacing, balanced by spectacularly intelligent comedy, comedy that is brooding, sardonic, and smirking.

Now I'm well aware that one reads the play, one zips right through it laughing non-stop, but bolting through a play silently in the mind while sitting down is not the same as reciting with passion and movement the heightened, humanistic, highly poetical dialogue on a stage in front of an audience, and we are talking about that same heightened dialogue you praised at the beginning of your message. Did you really want the cast to zip through the dialogue emphasizing the comedy and downplaying the heart and soul of the play - the existential drama?

We're talking about a play where people - highly intelligent and educated people, philosophers, thinkers, writers, humanists, people who are intelligentsia, are brooding about their wasted, unfilled, deeply disappointed, lonely lives, lives where their entire belief systems and worldviews have been shattered, characters stroking the out out brief candle pathos in four acts. These people are taking measure of the entirety of their lives, they speak in a measured manner because they aren't products of Western "culture", they're well-educated and deep thinkers, they pace around in a measured manner, they engage each other in a measured manner, they even get angry and exasperated in a measured manner, like truly civilized people do. They think before they speak and act.

Methinks people need to return to the play and explore it, because if all people walk away with is the "the play is hilarious, why wasn't it staged that way?" then you've missed 99% of the play.

But art without entertainment is no art at all

Dead wrong there, my friend.

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