SPOILER This film has an interesting story and a nice feel but it just takes too long to get going. Things are too obvious early on and the "death" of Celia - given away in the plot outline on this site, is hopefully more of a mystery during the film.
The first act drags terribly and could have done with a bit more pepper and less lingering shots. The heart of the story is Celia and at first she gets such little and such unsympathetic focus that it is difficult to feel much for her at all.
Paul, the prodigal son, gets too much emphasis in the first act and frankly his story is not that interesting until Celia enters it.
Once she gets involved though the movie gets into a much better rhythm, her interview with Paul being the beginning of the real core of the film as well as providing some much needed lightening to the overly serious plot.
It is clearly a male view of women though as the female characters are very lightly drawn, seen only through the eyes of the males who are perceiving them. Even Celia who gets more depth than the others, comes across as little more than a interesting enigma. Her mother fares far worse as she is vilified in the script. Miranda Otto's character does nothing much at all and the suicidal mother of the boys childhood is transparently a plot function.
That said there are some excellent moments in the film and over all I quite liked it, I just feel that with so many writer/director based pieces someone was needed to truly develop this script before it was shot.
The first act drags terribly and could have done with a bit more pepper and less lingering shots. The heart of the story is Celia and at first she gets such little and such unsympathetic focus that it is difficult to feel much for her at all.
Paul, the prodigal son, gets too much emphasis in the first act and frankly his story is not that interesting until Celia enters it.
Once she gets involved though the movie gets into a much better rhythm, her interview with Paul being the beginning of the real core of the film as well as providing some much needed lightening to the overly serious plot.
It is clearly a male view of women though as the female characters are very lightly drawn, seen only through the eyes of the males who are perceiving them. Even Celia who gets more depth than the others, comes across as little more than a interesting enigma. Her mother fares far worse as she is vilified in the script. Miranda Otto's character does nothing much at all and the suicidal mother of the boys childhood is transparently a plot function.
That said there are some excellent moments in the film and over all I quite liked it, I just feel that with so many writer/director based pieces someone was needed to truly develop this script before it was shot.
