Bloom
|
List Price: Our Price: $4.55 You Save: $5.39 (54%) Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days Buy Used: from $3.41 (click here) Category: DVD See more DVD releases |
|---|
Buy this DVD movie at online store in your country
Canada
Canada
Movie Reviews of Bloom
Movie Review: Middling
Summary: 3 Stars
Bloom is an Irish film of the James Joyce novel Ulysses by director Sean Walsh. Let me be up front- I think Ulysses is a vastly overrated book, with moments of superbness and many more moments of wretchedness. It was Joyce, Woolf, and their ilk that started a good deal of art down the road to narcissistic hermeticism. That all said, while the film Bloom is not a great film, in and of itself, it is a good film, with moments of brilliance, and does a far better job at explicating the events of the first Bloomsday, June 16th, 1904, than the book ever has, despite what pretentious critics say.
Basically, nothing much happens on that day, yet three main characters- a married couple, Leopold (Stephen Rea) and Molly Bloom (Angeline Ball), and an aspiring artist and scholar named Stephen Dedalus (Hugh O'Conor)- protagonist of Joyce's earlier A Portrait Of The Artist As A Young Man. The three perambulate about the world of Dublin on that day, meeting and missing each other on several occasions. Dedalus is trammeled by his own inadequacies, and rebelling against the established order, while the Blooms deal with the slow death of their marriage, precipitated by the untimely death of their son, and aided by Molly's flagrant infidelities. Yet, the book takes these circumstances and subordinates them to the intellect, in the conceit of `stream of consciousness' writing, which is basically unpunctuated interior dialogue. Of course, the thing about stream of consciousness is that it is really the conceit, not the real way people think, lest punctuation would never have gotten started. Think of how often your thoughts veer and back up, U-turn and screech to a halt. The mind is certainly not like a river, but more like a potholed city street.
The film, however, does not suffer from these limitations. The visual image can work on multiple levels with far more immediacy than the word, so the `day' of the book can be easily condensed. Some Joyceans will complain that the film takes things out of order, and mixes many of the chapters together, yet a) this is a film, not a book, and b) that is akin to deriding those who deride Joyce's approach in the book (regardless of whether or not he succeeds- I vote nay), as well as being the height of hypocrisy. There are marvelous images, and truly the cinematography is the best thing in the film. Rea is also great as Leopold Bloom, while ball and O'Conor also have moments of brilliance- including Molly Bloom's closing soliloquy- the last chapter in the book- which the filmmaker wisely opens and closes the film with, so that Molly is indelibly stamped in the viewer's mind while most of the rest of the film explores Leopold and Dedalus.... Almost all of the flaws in the film are carryover flaws from the novel. Film, in fact, would seem to be a medium that Joyce was born to indulge in. Had he been born thirty or so years later I think he may have become the first great screenwriter, and may never have dabbled in novels. Film is far closer to poetry than prose, and Joyce's prose certainly is among the closest published skirts near poetry. Instead of `not doing justice' to the book the film really makes the book far more relevant to readers- hardcore or casual. Its only flaws, outside of the book's, is that it could have been a bit more daring. I mean, if Ulysses is rent of nudity, just how avant garde can it be?
Overall, I recommend this film on its own right, and as sort of a Cliff's Notes to the book, especially considering the excellent director's commentary. But, it's a so-so book to begin with, so take the former notation in that light. Yes?
Movie Review: Interesting but misses the mark
Summary: 3 Stars
I am of the generation that prefers less graphic depiction of bodily functions. And the director/screenwriter didn't miss one. We see Bloom (and/or others) expectorate, defecate, urinate and copulate, all in the space of less than two hours. From that standpoint, "Bloom" is a prodigious feat. The novel allows some respite. It takes almost eveyone more than two hours to read "Ulysses" and one can always put the book down for time if approaching overload.
The film doesn't allow that option. Assaulted with voidng bladders, emptying bowels and all manner of sexual imagery, I reached overload within the first half of the movie. Part of the joy of reading "Ulysses" is discovery. Discovering the multitude of literary allusions Joyce used to challenge the reader or demonstrate his own erudition, who knows which? Discovering the pensive Molly Bloom's soliloquy at the end of the novel, like the coda of a Mozart sonata, a beautiful finish to a masterpiece. Discovering the magic of language as used by a masterful writer. Much if this is missing in the film. By all means, watch the film and of your interest is piqued and you are not discouraged by the parade of bodily function imagery, read the book. You will not be sorry.
Movie Review: Ulysses fails to Bloom
Summary: 2 Stars
Bloom
Since I love the television show 24, which breaks neatly into each hour of a single day, I figured there was a chance I'd like the movie Bloom, whose two hours cover 18 of a single day. Just kidding. Aside from the day-long time frame, the projects share nothing in common. Whereas 24's Jack Bauer saves the world at least three times, kills 20-50 people, blows up a half dozen buildings and never stops to eat or use the bathroom in a day, Bloom's Leopold Bloom (originated by James Joyce in Ulysses) avoids mayhem while walking around Dublin, finding plenty of time to eat and use the toilet during his day.
Bloom is a shocker for those groomed on current movie mayhem staples, which makes it tough for director Sean Walsh to succeed in his goal of exposing the basic Ulysses story elements to a wide audience, one where he finds very few members have read the book that has been rated as the best of the twentieth century.
Walsh's approach is to reduce the work it takes to absorb Joyce's writing style, but it could well be that the work is mandatory for appreciating the what happens. Correlating each of Ulysses' 18 chapters to those in Homer's The Odyssey is part of the fun. So is going through the different patterns of each chapter, bringing about an oddly rewarding obsessive compulsive appeal. This is lost in Bloom, where the exact timeframe is dispensed with, losing The Odyssey correlation along the way.
Still, the basics of the story are covered, with good eye towards recreating early 1900s Dublin and beautiful choices in outlying beach scenery. Performers are effective, led by The Crying Game's Oscar nominee Stephen Rea in the title role. Hugh O'Conner gives the Stephen Dedalus character a more ingenuous appeal than found in the book, making him easier to like in the film. Angeline Ball maintains her figure better than the novel's Molly Bloom, but has a good take on her extended, famous soliloquy, bringing a soft and meaningful reading of the uniquely written piece whose eight mere sentences run about 60 pages in print.
Her reading is a highlight of the film, taking advantage of one of the book's segments that seems the most theatrical and cinematic. The other is the Circe chapter of hallucinogenic activities in a brothel. It would take work to do it right, with part of the challenge being that the work has to be disguised and flow easily, as Terry Gilliam managed in Brazil. Walsh, on the other hand, is hampered by his low budget, which lessens the necessary effects for the sequence. He has his actors play it too broadly, with music that seems to be saying "This is funny, laugh damn it."
The scene will be expected by readers but should take newcomers completely off guard, with no hint at why it's there or what it means. Most of the film works that way. Ulysses readers, on the other hand, will recognize most key elements and perhaps enjoy recalling favorite moments from the book so that ultimately the movie becomes a literary, rather than cinematic, experience.
Movie Review: Withered Blossom
Summary: 2 Stars
This film adaptation at only 105 minutes simply leaves out way too much of the James Joyce classic. It especially leaves out much of the humour, which is inexcusalbe in a heavily satirical book. Lengthy chapters are reduced to "cameo" appearances or are omitted entirely. Comparisons with the 1967 film adaptation are inevitable so I will confine myself to three:
First: Stephen Rea is a fine actor but simply too old here to be playing Leopold Bloom. Rea looks like a late middle-aged wreck of a human being and not the early middle-aged, damaged but still optimistic character that dominates the book. Milo O'Shea nailed the spirit of the part in the earlier film.
Second: This version is simply too glossy, the cinimatography too well done, the characters in period costume looking too much like they just reported direct from wardrobe and make-up. By contrast the 1967 version, although given a contemporary setting, was filmed in black and white and has the right sense of gritiness about it. It also gets across more of the humour.
Third: Hugh O'Conor is a much livelier Stephen than Maurice Roeves and the one notable improvement over the first film adaptation.
In short: If you wish to see Ulysses on film best to skip this version and stick with the 1967 original, which is far from perfect but closer to the spirit of the book. Still better, get the unabridged audio recording from Naxos read by Jim Norton and also available from Amazon.
Movie Review: Bloomsday or Doomsday
Summary: 2 Stars
This film reinforces my belief that some books cannot be translated to film. The depth of imagination required to follow and appreciate the intricate interweaving of the Ulysses story/plot/action can only, as far as I know, be achieved within the human mind. The movie industry simply doesn't have the technology to achieve such a feat on the screen. This was a valiant effort, but my anticipated visual bloomsday felt more like a doomsday.