This movie is not half as controversial and interesting as its premise makes it sound. As a matter of fact, the movie is doing a pretty effective job avoiding everything that potentially could have turned this movie into an interesting and controversial one. It's a pretty shallow movie for most part, which is all due to the way how it gets told and the movie handles its characters.

It's easy to say this is a pointless movie, since most movies, by definition, are pretty pointless ones but this one still feels very pointless nevertheless in the sense that I'm still not entirely sure what it was trying to say and tell with its story. It's never heavy or deep enough to be a serious and effective drama and never interesting or controversial enough to have some good talking points.

I was actually surprised to find out that this movie got directed by a director who had been regularly making movies for as long as since 1993 already. It most definitely didn't show. While watching this movie I was convinced about it that it got done by a first time director, who still had to learn about basic storytelling and character development. There just was something off about all of it. There never was a good transition between its different sequences and even the acting comes across as 'bad' at times, despite the fact that this movie stars some great actors in it, such as Robin Wright and Naomi Watts. It made it all the more apparent to me that director Anne Fontaine wasn't really sure or confident enough on how to handle and approach its story and actors.

The foremost reason why this movie feels like an emotionally shallow one is because of its characters. Thing that mostly bothered me about this movie was how extremely underdeveloped its male characters all were. This movie is truly about its two female leads and focuses purely on just them and their thoughts and emotions. Everything else gets pushed to the background, which might have been fine for some other movies but in this case the male characters are a pretty integral of the movie its main plot. At the very least the two sons are. They however are given zero personality in this movie and I mean absolutely ZERO. So, I can understand why and how the two 'older' female characters could fall for each other's sons. I mean, they are obviously good looking and the two females themselves obviously aren't ready to accept their own age and come to terms with their lives as responsible and respectable adults but it just never became clear to me as to why the two young sons so suddenly, without any apparent reason, would fall so blindly for each other's mothers. It does not only feel underdeveloped but also like a missed opportunity. It potentially could have provided the movie with so much more depth and meaning if only the sons characters were developed better, or at the least had some more- and also more distinctive, personalities to them. In all honesty, I couldn't even tell them apart from each other!


The weird thing about the movie also is that at first it's about one thing but toward its end suddenly decides to skip 2 years ahead. The final 30 minutes of this movie doesn't really fit in with the rest of the movie, both tonally and story-wise. It too desperately is trying to wrap things up, not by resolving things but by just simply ending things. One of the other reasons why this movie feels too shallow with all of its drama and emotions. Nothing gets resolved satisfactorily.

It's not like this is the worst movie you could ever watch though. It's still decent enough actually, if you're into these sort of slower and more subtle independent dramas, despite the fact that it just never turns into anything that's all that interesting or surprising. It's still good looking and has some interesting elements to it, that however don't always get handled in the best or most effective of ways.

6/10

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A pair of childhood friends and neighbors fall for each other's sons. From: IMDb.com

Directed by: Anne Fontaine

Starring: Robin Wright, Naomi Watts, Ben Mendelsohn and others

Current release date: September 6, 2013

An aging, out-of-work actress accepts one last job, though the consequences of her decision affect her in ways she didn't consider. From: IMDb.com

Directed by: Ari Folman

Starring: Harvey Keitel, Kodi Smit-McPhee, Danny Huston and others

Current release date: 2013

(Review originally written at 29 April 2008)

Motion capture movie making is of course still in its very early stages. It shows some potentials for the future of film-making but it's not really good enough at this moment to make a great and convincing movie with. Still the most convincing computer animated movie was "Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within" and that movie proved to be so costly that the studio went bankrupt soon after the movie its release. Who knows, maybe in 10 years from now it will be perfected and people will be able to make this type of movies faster and cheaper and above all also better. I'm actually looking forward to the day they start making movies with the likenesses of already deceased actors, complete with voice impersonating techniques. Wishful futuristic thinking or the future of film-making? Who knows, time will tell, although I'm sure that there always be need and demand for actors and 'normal' film-making, so all those crew and actors wont ever have to go back to school to learn a different profession.

"Beowulf" is already a big step up from Robert Zemeckis his previous motion capture movie attempt "The Polar Express" but still it also suffers from the same problems. It still remains hard to bring the right emotions to the screen on the character's faces and their skins look way too smooth and perfect to consider the look a full 100% realistic. And overall the movie really makes you think at times why did they have to make this movie completely computer animated? Couldn't they had done basically just as good with live action movie making techniques with live real actors in front of the camera?

Overall the look of the movie is good but at times it still feels as if you're watching a cut scene of a Playstation game. Especially during some of the action sequences. Of course the beauty of computer animated movies is that you can go just as far and over-the-top with its action as you want to, since there are no limitations to its possibilities. Notmally I'm not a big fan off silly over-the-top action in animated movies but in this case it didn't bothered me since it seemed to suit the story and the character of Beowulf right.

It also makes this movie more or less look like a 'children's' movie, which "Beowulf" definitely is not. While it looks seem to be made for the younger ones, the story is definitely one for adults. And also the movie features quite an amount of graphic violence.

But of course a movie is not all about its looks. The story of Beowulf seems like a pretty entertaining and strong story on its own. However this movie gives you the feeling that it isn't giving you halve of its story. At times the movie makes to big leaps into time, which makes you wonder what happened in between. It was as if they ran out of time or money or both halve way through the production of the movie, which forced them to cut a large portion of its story. It therefor isn't the most coherent movie to watch but this only becomes more of a problem in its last part. The most part of the movie and its story does entertain but it also knows to build some more depth and brings some layers into the story, that focuses on the nature of mankind. It doesn't all work out and not as effective as it could had but the right intentions for it are definitely there.

Some of the possibilities of motion capture movie making already shows in the look of its characters. Ray Winstone is a far from muscular or heroic looking actor but thanks to the wonders of technique he looks like the perfect super human with amazing strength. On the other hand some actors look the same way as they do in real life, such as Anthony Hopkins, John Malkovich, Brendan Gleeson and Angelina Jolie, which again in a different way also shows the possibilities of computer animated movies.

Still I hope that Robert Zemeckis will also return to 'normal' film-making again. His last 'normal' movie "Cast Away" already dates back from 2000. Don't forget that this is the guy that once brought us the Back to the Future-trilogy, "Who Framed Roger Rabbit", "Forrest Gump", "Contact" and the earlier mentioned "Cast Away", among many other great movies. We need some more movies like that Robert! He already however is working on another motion capture movie at the moment, "A Christmas Carol", based of course on the famous Charles Dickens novel.

Nevertheless "Beowulf" remains a perfectly watchable entertaining movie for in between to watch.

7/10

(Review originally written at 19 October 2007)

This is one rather odd unusual movie. It mixes several movie elements such as comedy, musical and film-noir. It's however one mix that doesn't really work out and comes across as an odd one.

It's also most certainly due to the confusing script that mixes truth and fiction and uses lots of flashback elements that also mixes past with 'present'. What is this movie really about? What story does it try to tell? Exactly what is the point of this entire movie and what does it try to achieve.

The movie obviously tries to be an homage to the '50's and the '50's movie genre but it does so without having much style of its own. The clothes are right, the dialogs are right but the atmosphere really isn't, which is of course the most important element. The musical elements could had helped to let the movie work out better but the movie chooses to use evergreens instead new, specifically for this movie written songs. Also the fact that the actors are obviously play-backing to the real singers is a reason why it just doesn't ever work out in the movie. The movie tries to be stylish and fun but it's perhaps trying to hard, which causes it to work ineffective. This movie gave me the feeling that a different director could had still let this movie work out.

The movie obviously doesn't try to be serious but it does this by actually having also very little humor in it. Yeah, you can say that this movie is a black comedy but this movie really isn't the best or most effective example in its genre.

Too bad that the movie didn't really worked out, since it had a great and surprising cast. It was Robert Downey Jr's. first big role after his drug addiction. He of course got the role through his good friend Mel Gibson who is a producer of this movie. Downey Jr. does a good job and he once more shows how a great actor he is and how well he is capable of carrying a movie. Mel Gibson himself also plays a surprising role underneath a lot of make-up effects. The movie further more also features Adrien Brody in his first role since his Oscar-winning performance in "The Pianist". It really wasn't his greatest career choice.

Has it's moments but in the end this movie leaves nothing more than a pointless and confusing impression.

4/10