Hmmm....other reviewers here have mentioned this, and it resonates with me, that for one reason or another this movie is just not as good as it should have been.
It has a great cast and a half-decent story, but it just doesn't hang together in a satisfying way. At times it evokes the cold, dark, dank mood and atmosphere of The Name of The Rose (Landor & Poe vs Baskerville & Adso) but then, somewhat schizophrenically, it repeatedly takes on the guise of a cheap Hallmark Made-for-TV movie. It doesn't help that everyone in the military academy would not look out of place guarding Willy Wonka's chocolate factory, or in an episode of Camberwick Green.
As a suspensful, spooky thriller it is all just a bit...meh.
Worth watching for Bale, and Timothy Spall going full on Chitty Chitty Bang Bang - but little else.
It has a great cast and a half-decent story, but it just doesn't hang together in a satisfying way. At times it evokes the cold, dark, dank mood and atmosphere of The Name of The Rose (Landor & Poe vs Baskerville & Adso) but then, somewhat schizophrenically, it repeatedly takes on the guise of a cheap Hallmark Made-for-TV movie. It doesn't help that everyone in the military academy would not look out of place guarding Willy Wonka's chocolate factory, or in an episode of Camberwick Green.
As a suspensful, spooky thriller it is all just a bit...meh.
Worth watching for Bale, and Timothy Spall going full on Chitty Chitty Bang Bang - but little else.
