Oscar & Lucinda
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Movie Reviews of Oscar & Lucinda
Movie Review: Unusual
Summary: 4 Stars
This is a very unusual story, boardering on unbelievable. But then - - is everything suppose to be believable? Entertaining.Movie Review: a lost jewel
Summary: 4 Stars
good movie, great acting, great script, beatifully shot. don't know why nobody went to see it.Movie Review: OSCAR AND LUCINDA
Summary: 3 Stars
The delivery was excellent but the DVD was dry and i found uninteresting.
I just could not get into the story.
Movie Review: One beautifully filmed butchered mess of a movie!!!!!!!! Reading the book will help immensely!
Summary: 2 Stars
(May 1,2007 addition)As a short intro to my original review,I have watched this film several times now because there are things about it that have staying/growing power that is furthered only by reading the novel( which is quite different from the movie), but does help to fill in much of what this screenplay is missing.
If I was asked to give you a plot synopsis of this gorgeous film I would be hard pressed to say that OSCAR AND LUCINDA is about anything for sure.This is positively the singlemost butchered screenplay I have ever sat through.Laura Jones has adapted Peter Carey's novel and Gillian Armstrong has turned out "something" that is so chopped up and nonsensical that, apart from from the very quick shots of New South Wales and a magnificent soundtrack by Thomas Newman, I had to keep pausing the film to say,"WHAT???!!!"
This film is about everything and it is about nothing;it is about obsession and compulsion;it is about different religions;it is about chance and faith;it is about a father and son;it is about how a grandson came to be.........but it certainly IS NOT about two connected characters named Oscar and Lucinda.Each scene of this film is SO short and abrupt that the viewer never has any time to identify/sympathize/empathize with ANY of these extremely disconnected people and events.There are SO many plots and subplots and themes and subthemes and non essential material and characters that it is positively annoying to see such squander of good source material in the wrong ,uncapable and un-understanding hands.It seems that trying to tell any of the heart and soul that is revealed in Peter Carey's novel in slightly more than two hours proved to be too much for those involved in this endeavour.
What a shock to see the immense talents of A -list actors such as Ralph Fiennes,Cate Blanchett,Ciaran Hinds and Tom Wilkinson literally wasted in 20 second scenes!Even the breathtaking land of the Australian outback is shown for five seconds at the most.AND THE ENDING!!!!!.....what in Heaven's name was that???Either most of this film is still on the cutting room floor( edited by the nefarious Nicholas Beauman of LITTLE WOMEN,COUNTRY LIFE,COSI) or Laura Jones and Gillian Armstrong just simply could not find any center and focus for this beautifully filmed "butchered" mess of a movie.2 1/2 -3 stars because the Thomas Newman soundtrack is so magnificent.(Buy the soundtrack!)
Movie Review: A Brilliant Failure
Summary: 2 Stars
This film has all the elements of a grand epic. Had it been made in the 60s , it would have won the Academy Award. But something has happened to render the 'world' of the film oppressively neurotic and irrelevant. Do we live in a post-Christian world? If so, this may account for the desperate strangeness of the men of the cloth, who seem tortured and twisted and sick. They are either socially oppressive, trivial hypocrites, or tormented, lost souls, paralyzed by guilt and doubt or both. They all remind me of Flannery O'Connor's world of distorted freaks. The acting is superb, of course, but the tale is a total letdown, not so much depressing as just anti-climatic. It has none of the magnificence of "Aguirre, the Wrath of God", which it reminded me of. One problem is the character played to perfection by Ralph Fiennes. It is more than irritating is see a man play a worm. It is in the end painful to watch this man rubbing his hands together and crawling around on the ground. Call it what you will, this is not the kind of character one can relate to. Men and women in real life may want to care for him, but the audience loses interest.