MovieChat Forums > Décalage horaire (2002) Discussion > The problem I have with Roger Ebert's re...

The problem I have with Roger Ebert's review

posted 17 years ago by BMFMONOXIDE
1 reply | jump to latest

http://rogerebert.suntimes.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20030627/REVIEWS/306270304/1023

You ought to read it. All of the things which he cites as negatives, I see as positives. I believe the dialogue is witty and the lead performances are superb. In fact, Jean Reno deserved an Oscar nomination. The thing is...it's realistic. Unlike the "Before Sunrise" characters, these people have lengthy pasts and many life experiences that have formed who they are. They are both cynical and world-weary and can only seem to relate to each other. IMO, there's a lot of depth in the movie. Ebert seems to think that it's simply a shallow retread of other movies.

[–] clamtheman 16 years ago

You're right, I thought this film was very well developed - if that's the right term! I believed in the characters and genuinely wanted to find out what happens to them. I do like both the leads a lot and that may have helped but they handled this with ease. And there was great writing to go with the acting.

Ebert's reviews are always, IMO, slightly colored by his "closeness" or otherwise to a movie. Perhaps somebody connected to this movie didn't leave him any invitations to the launch or any bulging brown paper bags. He also tends to review with an extremely American-centric attitude. Films are made in a different way in France, the audience is smarter and they need different things from their movies, which leads a lot of critics to be negative when really they've just fallen into the trap of rehashing their own reviews of domestic releases.

Hollywood has a way of making these stories, it's certainly not the only way, nor the best but reviewers seem to use the Hollywood approach as a yardstick - it's a shame.