A Handful of Dust
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Movie Reviews of A Handful of Dust
Movie Review: Beautifully Filmed But For Me A Waste of Time
Summary: 1 Stars
I recently saw Brideshead Revisted which I found completely wonderful. It was perhaps one of the most enjoyable and captivating films I've ever immersed myself in.
So, hungry for more Evenlyn Waugh (whose books I read in a college course that was based exclusively on his work), I found "A Handful Of Dust" at my library and figured I'd give it a try. Since the same author wrote it and the film was made by the same film people as Brideshead I was filled with anticipation.
My wife and I watched the first hour or so one night and while it had some good moments, and was certainly beautifully filmed, we were left cold by it. But we figured maybe after that the movie would develop.
So we decided to continue it the following night. Big mistake!
I only wish I could get back the time I wasted on it. While I don't expect "Happy endings" in a film (Brideshead certainly didn't have a "Happy ending") the ending in this story left me in disbelief.
Since I didn't read this particular book by Waugh and didn't know its ending, I was completely unprepared when the credits started rolling that the movie ended as it did. I was amazed by the stupidity of all I had just witnessed.
I thought the story would have been much more interesting to see if Tony would "toughen up" a little, transform and grow from the circumstances of his "captivity" rather than just look like a pathetic fool.
Perhaps the only redeeming aspect of the movie was watching Brenda get what she deserved, still it wasn't enough to justify watching this film.
This film was basically a "series of unfortunate events", with myself feeling most unfortunate of all.
My wife to her credit fell asleep during the last part of the film and used the time more wisely than I did.
Compared with a film like Brideshead Revisited, where the characters really developed throughout the story and took on a tremendous amount of depth, This story, was full of one dimensional characters. Dressing these characters up with beautiful costumes and scenery, well written music and excellent cinematography still didn't save the story from being like a bad "twilight zone" episode.
If you look up my reviews, you will see that I don't go out of my way to give bad reviews, but I was so annoyed by the time I wasted I felt I need to share this. Of course I have just wasted more time in connection with this film by now writing this review, but I felt maybe I could spare someone else the wasted time.
Movie Review: Don't waste your time.
Summary: 1 Stars
Let me make this easy for you. Tony & Brenda are married to each other, but split up because Brenda is unfaithful. Tony goes to Brazil on what he thinks is an adventure, and ends up trapped there. Everyone back in the UK is falsely led to think he is dead by a man who keeps Tony a virtual prisoner so that he will read Charles Dickens books to him. A funeral is held for Tony back home, who is actually still alive. And the movie ends. Wow, did I ever get a lot out of that.
You might ask, how can such a negative review be valid when so many other reviews for this movie are so positive? Well, I have been reading movie reviews on this site for some time, and I have concluded that people write reviews for movies that have attracted them for some reason. They tend not to bother with movies that they have reason to believe they would not like. If they saw and wrote reviews for such movies, there would be a lot more negative reviews. This is somewhat similar to auto websites in which folks write reviews on their new cars. Even the worst dogs get great reviews. The reviewers wouldn't have bought the cars if they didn't like them.
So, what is so bad about a movie in which everything goes downhill and the only character I had some liking for ends up trapped and is thought to be dead? Well, I guess I can live with unhappy endings, but I generally still need to get some kind of a positive message. In this case, the message seems to be that a marriage is worth saving. Not enough of a message to make up for the time I wasted on this movie.
By the way, this is the first movie review I have written. I figured something this bad deserves a response.
Movie Review: Truly a waste of two hours
Summary: 1 Stars
It takes a lot to drive me to write a review, but this film has just wasted two hours of mine and my husband's time, and therefore I feel strongly about it. We were attracted to the film because of the fantastic cast, and they did act beautifully. However, this was a long drawn out story with a beginning and a middle, but no end. It was painfully slow, and with hindsight, we should have given up after the first long painful hour, but we persevered in the hope it would improve. None of the characters were likeable, and therefore it was difficult to care what happened to them.... and given that the scriptwriter couldn't be bothered to create an end for the film, I can only assume he felt similarly.