The Man Who Cried
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Movie Reviews of The Man Who Cried
Movie Review: Good Work from Christina Ricci
Summary: 4 Stars
Christina Ricci did an outstanding job in this film. I would have liked to see a better transition to the relationship with Caeser, and to finding her father.Movie Review: Good cast & cinematograpy; sappy script
Summary: 3 Stars
Johnny Depp is sultry, mysterious, and totally gorgeous as the honorable, family-loving gypsy who rides a magnificent white horse. If there had been more of him in the film, I might have given it another star....Well, on to Cate Blanchett---she was terrific, too, and lit up every scene in which she appeared. One can only wonder what a different story it would have been if Depp had been paired with Blanchett.
But here the gypsy is paired with the wide-eyed waif, Christina Ricci. She seems to pursue him and eventually he gives in and gives her the love she desperately needs. To a girl who lost her father as a child, Cesar, the Gypsy, provides not only romance but a strong sense of family.
It's Paris in the 30's though and that's not a good place for either Jews or Gypsys. This is a setting that has proven fertile ground for many fine works of art. Unfortunately Sally Potter creams the top and just perpetuates stereotypes. The Ricci character is all good and pure, the English family who took her in and gave her a home are shown as cold and heartless, the Opera singer abuses his Catholic faith by praying for the Germans to win (in a particularly odious scene,) the gypsies are all warm hearted, fun loving folks, etc. etc.
On the plus side, there is some wonderful music and the cinematography is beautiful. The singing voice of the Suzie character is lovely.
Ricci is an affecting actress but seems to be sleep walking through this role. I'm not sure it is her fault. She isn't given many lines to say and has to rely on her giant eyes to express what is supposed to be pain, longing, revulsion and passion. The trouble is she has the same expression, or lack of it, for all emotions. We don't really see enough of the real person to get a sense of who she is so I found it hard to sustain interest in her. As another reviewer commented, she hardly seems like someone the dashing Gypsy would fall for.
Lola, the Russian dancer who does whatever she can to survive, is a much more interesting character. She is opportunistic, true and we are supposed to hate her for that but on the other hand she does leave the greasy tenor and provides the means for Suzie's escape. I wish Suzie would have shed a tear for her..but I guess she was so emotionally traumatized by that point that she needed all her force to look for her father.
Tarturro and the other supporting characters do their best. The actor who played the father has an amazingly expressive face and the child who portrayed the young Ricci is precious.
There are some wonderful scenes. I particularly like Depp, and his two Gypsy buddies standing on top of their horses as they rode through the streets of Paris. Then the scene where Depp weeps as his hold his sleeping lover is very moving. I guess that's where the title comes from? It really doesn't make much sense. There's a lot of good stuff in this film; it just doesn't quite come together. That fact, along with the insulting ethnic stereotypes makes it one to forget.
Movie Review: Acting & Cinematography help weak script
Summary: 3 Stars
"The Man Who Cried" is a handsome, episodic film which has several visually brilliant moments and some fine performances. It does not ultimately, however, add up to a particularly satisfying emotional whole. The script by Sally Potter, who also directed, tries to cover too many events occurring over a period of at least twenty years. The movie begins in rural Russia where a little Jewish girl named Suzie lives in a village with her father and grandmother. The father leaves her behind to seek a better life in America. He promises to send for her, but violence and warfare come to her region, and she winds up a refugee in England. All she has left is a tattered photograph of her father. She is taken in by a middleclass family. She learns to sing and dance, but she never feels the joy those talents can bring. As a young adult [played by Christina Ricci], she decided to go to Paris. She meets Lola [Cate Blanchett], a beautiful, tempestuous fellow Russian expatriate. They become friends and roommates. Lola sets her sights on famous opera singer [John Turturro], while Suzie's heart is stolen by a gypsy [Johnny Depp]. The snobbish, bigoted opera star doesn't like the fact that Suzie runs around with such lowlife. He also taunts her for being Jewish. When the Nazis invade Paris, her life becomes increasingly chaotic. If only she can find a way to make it to America...
Christina Ricci, one of our finest and most adventurous young actresses, is excellent. Hers is a difficult role because she has so few lines to speak and must convey a great deal through body language and facial expressions. The great Cate Blanchett is given plenty to say and says it all with her usual finesse. Johnny Depp and John Turturro make the most of their smaller but important roles.
Perhaps the greatest contribution is made by Sacha Vierny, whose masterful cinematography goes a long way in masking the deficiencies in Ms. Potter's script.
Movie Review: Really a 3 and a half star movie.
Summary: 3 Stars
"The Man Who Cried" starts, literally, from a child's point of view, and even as it pulls back to follow her journey to young adulthood, it never loses the child's sense of life's mystery and enigma. The first few minutes of the movie establish, with very few words and notable compression, the central events, beginning in the late 1920s, of a little Russian Jewish girl's early life, her separation from her father (who emigrates to America) and the violent circumstances under which she leaves her home and arrives in England. The little girl who started life as Fegele finds herself with a new name, Suzie, in an alien world where the only familiar sight is the gypsies who pass by her school. This, a photograph of her father, and the memory of the songs he sang are all that is left to her of her old life. The desire to reach America to find her father never leaves her.
Suzie (played as an adult by Christina Ricci) matures into a pretty girl with a lovely voice who leaves England to become a showgirl in Paris, where she meets Lola (Cate Blanchett), a Russian emigree, Dante (John Turturro), an Italian tenor, and most important, Cesar (Johnny Depp), a Gypsy horseman whose center is as still as hers. The lives of these characters interweave as the Germans approach, then occupy Paris. Suzie must decide whether to use the ticket Lola has given her to reach America, or to stay in occupied Paris.
The first minutes of this film are as good as any I've ever seen. (Claudia Lander-Duke, who plays Fegele/Suzie as a child, is particularly moving.) Though I don't think the movie subsequently ever again quite equals these moments (or that the plot quite supports itself toward the end), the haunting, almost dreamlike, atmosphere created by the wonderful photography, and the central relationship of Suzie and Cesar make the film well worth watching.
Movie Review: dissatisfaction
Summary: 3 Stars
This was a slow-moving and not terribly interesting film, but I had to see it, of course, because Cate Blanchett is in it! In fact the entire cast is outstanding and all play their roles well, but perhaps some of the sumptuous meandering of the story could have been skipped. In any case, the story revolves around Fegele, a Russian Jewish girl who is separated from her beloved father and sent to England, where she is reared as "Suzie". Eventually she becomes a showgirl and goes to Paris, where she befriends and rooms with "Lola", played beautifully by the multitalented force of Cate Blanchett. The cinematography and scenery is beautiful; the music is beautiful. Everything is lush and colorful.
However, Nazism is on the rise, Fegele/Suzie is hiding her true Jewish origins, and things are becoming strained between Lola and Suzie, as Lola is romancing a passionate Italian opera singer (John Turturro). Suzie's real desire and driving need is to see if her father is still alive and if so, can she find him?
Although many people have said that Johnny Depp's appearance in the film elevates the film, I am not entirely sure that there is a lot of point to his character or the storyline involving him. It was neither good nor bad, but I don't view it as central to the film except to further Suzie's character development as a deeply feeling young woman, someone who has experienced loss and will experience it again. Eventually she will look for her father and will reunite with her friend Lola, but overall there was a sense of misdirection and unfortunately disorganization. The ending leaves one feeling little satisfaction.