MovieChat Forums > The Night Watch (2011) Discussion > Very good, but...

Very good, but...

posted 13 years ago by badgerking10
6 replies | jump to latest

SPOILER

I was keen to watch this anyway. But, once I heard the very positive reviews on "The Review Show" and "Saturday Review", I got quite excited about it... The acting was fab - though, the very watchable J J Feild was a bit wasted - the writing was very good and WW2 was wonderfully evoked. But, it just seemed to lack a story... And, the suicide pact business struck me as a bit unlikely. [Though, I suppose teenagers could be as silly back then as they can now...] I certainly didn't dislike it. But, maybe it's fair to say that it wasn't what I'd been expecting.

[–] jeffhead 13 years ago

Yeah I watched this on the box last night, and could not make heads or tails of it. For some reason, I liked it. Suppose if I watched it again, things would make a bit more sense.

[–] torrgran 13 years ago

It was awful!

[–] sam_roberts1967 13 years ago

Far too ambitious to try to compress a 500-plus page novel into 90 minutes.

In my opinion, it could have worked as 3 feature-length episodes.

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Suppose if I watched it again, things would make a bit more sense.

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Agree with you there. Perhaps you should read the novel - it is long, but worth it - and then buy the DVD. I really don't feel the adaptation did the novel justice.

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I REFUSE TO PLAY YOUR CHINESE FOOD MIND GAMES!

[–] jeffhead 13 years ago

Never read a full book in my life. I've tried. All those words; on and on and on; one after each other. Jesus; how the hell can anyone get pleasure from reading?

[–] PoppyTransfusion 13 years ago

It worked well as a period piece and really evoked London and the war bombings/black outs. Where it was weak was in conveying some of the relationships. The lesbian triangle and the gay brother were obviously more complicated than could be conveyed whereas the relationship between the woman and the married man seemed more credible. I found the character of Kay compelling and would have liked more of her story.

I'm a fountain of blood
In the shape of a girl

[–] Hal-83 13 years ago

Unlike everyone else, I didn't think much of Anna Maxwell Martin. She didn't wear those men's clothes with the naturalness someone compelled to would.

Times are bad. Children no longer obey their parents and everyone is writing a book - Cicero