Great cast, great story-line, cinematic-ally well shot--but just doesn't work.
Why is that?
Was it Jeff Bridges talking like his mouth was full of stones?
Was it Brenton's inexperience as an actor?
Was it failure by the director to communicate the reality of the world they lived in and the stakes?
Was it just that elusive thing...chemistry, that was lacking from the entire film, both between the actors and the story-line?
The Memory Wave and sudden special powers
shareI think it was because we have seen all these things before. Them trying to equate the story with our world and breaking us free when we have been broken free a dozen times already.
shareI liked the movie, but the structure was flawed, and the biggest problem was probably the pivotal moment of the story where Jonas learns the truth about society and discovers pain and suffering. It was glossed over in the film and I think it was just revealed in a brief montage.
Side note: I was never forced to read the book as a kid.
The book worked because we could use our imagination, it's too difficult to splash a bunch of photos across the screen to represent color, joy, beauty, love, war and pain and expect people to just 'get' the meaning of those things outside of our imagination and OUR, personal idea of what it is to be human.
It was too much for one film, if they stretched it out into three films and gave people time to understand the depth of what was happening, the film would have done so much better. You can't contain the essence of life in a couple hours and expect people to grasp the meaning of the story.
The direction was too pedestrian, just no magic, no poetry, despite being pretty faithful to the book. Imagiine this in the hands of Terence Malick or David Lynch.
shareOh damn. Terence Malick would have made this a masterpiece. Wish I could see that. Tarsem Singh would have also done a wonderful job.
shareI THOUGHT IT WAS DECENT...NOT GREAT...MY THIRTEEN YEAR OLD DAUGHTER,WHO IS A FAN OF THE BOOK...SHE LOVED IT.
shareIt was heavily rushed.
shareWas it failure by the director to communicate the reality of the world they lived in and the stakes?
Well, I just tried watching it for the 3rd time, and once again found something more interesting to do on the side
Was thinking of finding the book and reading it BUT then I read here where the movie is Better ???
Jeff Started talking like that with True Grit