A Review - saw it five minutes ago... (the truth will hurt)
I just watched The Scarlet Letter with the English subtitles intact, and I can say without any reservation, that this movie is REALLY truly awful.
Plot Summary (1) (First 90 Mins): Woman finds husband dead, presumably battered around the head. Cop arrives, talks to wife. Wife suspect. Actually, wife probably not a suspect; wife too nice. Cop has own wife, quiet woman, boring, pregnant. Cop love own wife. Cop also love another woman, a Jazz singer, and is having affair. Cop have three-way triangle relationship, keep each side quiet. Cop try to solve murder of first woman. (90 minutes)
Plot Summary (2) (90Mins-120mins): Stupid plot twist happen near a river in a car. Movie accidentally made into comedy. Viewer slap head in disbelief. Movie get worse. Viewer thinks everyone an idiot, and wants movie to stop. Movie gets worse... movie won't end. Twist. Stupid twist. Blood. Movie won't END. Movie finally end. (120 mins)
The Scarlet Letter is a fifteen minute short at best, padded out to almost two hours. And if that's not bad enough, it ticks off every cliche, stereotype and "arty-wank" till around the 90 minute mark when an event in the movie so lame and desperate occurs, and throws the movie off into an even worse movie than it was on beforehand. I wasn't expecting much from a cop drama involving a two-way affair with his wife and his jazz-enthusiast whore. The Scarlet Letter is well and truly a TV soap opera disguised as a movie. What do I mean by that? Well, any sequence worth a fart (gunshots, jumping from windows, that kind of thing) is shown offscreen. Let's put it this way, the budget certainly didn't end up on screen. And neither did any entertainment, wit or originality. And for those of you who are in to a cheap, sexual thrill - keep your pants on and the Kleenex on the shelf. Nothing, literally, to see here.
Oh sure, it's all *technically* competent and nicely shot. But the direction is so laboured, almost asleep. This director, whoever he is, clearly has no idea how to tell a story - but his shot compositions are okay, so kudos to Mr. Cinematographer, whoever you are. That's hardly a subtitute for 120 minutes of my time, though.
Above all else, it's endless. It never stops. It really is that person at the party who never knows they they've outstayed their welcome. I was so nauseated by the movie's ineptitude and lack of character empathy that I was getting angry, shouting at the screen to just make it stop (you know that point of no return where you've watched so far, and PowerDVD says you only have a few minutes left - and you may as well just brave the rest of it?) ... ugh.
It's a shame really, because it is competently acted by all involved in the major roles. Of particular note is the girl who plays the Jazz Singer (Eun-ju Lee) who, by all accounts, followed up this piece of s h i t with a much worthier performance - she killed herself shortly after making (or is that seeing?) the movie. Can't say I blame the poor cow. I mean - phew! - no manners, but what a critic!
For Christ's sake, pay some respect, and honour poor Eun-ju Lee's fatal message; watch Oldboy instead/again.