Uncovered
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Movie Reviews of Uncovered
Movie Review: Entertaining despite the contrived plot
Summary: 3 Stars
I stumbled across this movie on a DVD rental site and found it to be surprisingly entertaining. For those of you who are familiar with Arturo Perez Reverte's works, this movie is based on his novel titled 'The Flanders Panel' which in itself is a good thriller, though you do have to be familiar with the game of chess as that's crucial to the plot.
This movie contains an early, rather tomboyish Kate Beckinsale, though still very much spirited. She plays an art restorer who finds there's a secret message in a piece of art that she's restoring, a panel that has been in a particular family of noble lineage for 500 years. She enlists the help of her ex-professor/ex-boyfriend Alvaro, played by Art Malik, who later turns up dead, presumably of natural causes. Well, turns out that Alvaro is the first in a series of deaths and Kate's character tries to decipher what's going on, with the help of a street chess player [based on the assumption that the deaths are related to the game of chess depicted in the panel].
Anyway, the story though based on an interesting premise, soon turns out to be contrived, yet that doesn't detract from one's enjoyment of this movie. There are quite a few sexy scenes here, and quite a bit of nudity as well - Kate flashes bits of herself, and sometimes almost all of herself unabashedly, and this is early kate, very young and tomboyish, with a cropped hairstyle, yet displaying the peaches and cream beauty that still defines her today.
The murderer in the story will be quite apparent to most viewers before the ending, yet I would still recommend it for its interesting premise and sexy bits.It might also interest some viewers that another of Arturo reverte's works, titled The Club Dumas was also made into a movie, The Ninth Gate [with Johnny Depp] which is a sort of literary/supernatural thriller.
Movie Review: Nice, average whodunnit
Summary: 3 Stars
"Uncovered" is a lot like its lead actress, Kate Beckinsdale, sort of light and easy on the eyes. The story is loosely based on Arturo Perez-Reverte's book "The Flanders Panel" and centers around a 16th century Dutch painting, "The Chess Game," that Beckinsdale's character is restoring so it can be sold at auction. When she uncovers a secret inscription, "Who killed the knight?" hidden under a layer of paint, she starts researching the painting to find out what it all means. But as she works, she becomes more than a little distracted by the growing pile of corpses of people associated with the painting, and a young gypsy chess expert enlisted to help with part of the puzzel.
It all goes down relatively quickly and easily, sort of like the whipped cream on the pastry Beckinsdale and the gypsy chess expert share during a sloppy kiss on the street after their first night together, and about as dangerous. Barcelona, the city where the film is set, also comes off really well -- picturesque old streets, and some architectural treasure by Gaudi around every corner. The oddest thing though is that, to judge by the film, all the inhabitants of Barcelona are actually English -- one hears almost no Spanish or Catalan in the entire film. Fans of Perez-Reverte, looking for a decent adaptation of one of his fine books, are going to be disappointed, though perhaps less so than with the disasterous "Ninth Gate" that was made from the novel "The Dumas Club."
Movie Review: Tepid murder mystery
Summary: 3 Stars
In "Uncovered", Kate Beckinsale plays a woman living in Barcelona Spain restoring a very valuable 500 year old painting of two men playing chess and a woman watching them. She discovers an inscription on a layer of paint underneath the top layer that translates to "who killed the knight". The painting's owner tells her the story of an ancestor being murdered and he may be the knight in question. She discovers the mystery centers on the game of chess being played in the painting and enlists the help of a young chess genius to deconstruct the game and predict upcoming moves. As she investigates the mystery however, people around her begin to die.
"Uncovered" is a trite mystery. It's enjoyable to watch to an extent, but it has a very annoying soundtrack and the acting isn't particularly good, even Beckinsale in an obviously early role for her (and her haircut is awful). There is no real suspense to anything that happens. The chess game in the picture being at the center of the mystery was interesting as was comparing the moves to what happened 500 years ago and what was happening now, but the movie as a whole never grabs you completely. The tone is a little too light and airy for a murder mystery.
Movie Review: 5 stars for cinematography, 2 stars for everything else
Summary: 3 Stars
As noted by many other reviewers, the cinematography as well as the Barcelona location is lush and extremely eye-pleasing. To anyone who has read the book, the film is disappointing. Although keeping with the fundamental plot, several elements have changed enough to lose the creepy forbidding air that novel established so well. In particular, the time spent in the film on the heroine's eating habits and her procilivity to sneeze right before a romantic clutch seem downright silly, even if the former nods and jokes towards Beckinsale's reputed real life early battle with anorexia.
If you've been to Barcelona, it is a real tresure to see the city and particularly its Gaudi treasures laid out so skillfully. This film plays visual homage brilliantly to one of the world's great cities.
Otherwise, read the book and skip the movie. The art history is very superficial and in some cases just plain dumb. I seriously doubt any real art restorer blows sigarette smoke on a painting while it is being repaired!
Movie Review: The Real Work of Art in this Movie is Kate Beckinsale
Summary: 3 Stars
The reason I gave this DVD 3 stars instead of 2 is because of Kate Beckinsale and Barcelona. She is what keeps this weakly written murder mystery from turning into the kind of movie where the audience gets up to leave halfway thru after they've figured out "the butler did it" before the actors have. She's totally unbelieveable in the role of an art restorer, blowing cigarette smoke and sneezing all over a supposedly priceless work of art. Instead, Beckinsale comes across as a 19-yr-old art student fiddling around with a 500-yr-old treasure...albeit she is a very attractive one, with or without her clothes on. I also found it interesting that she has a different outfit on in just about every scene, except for the ones where she's wearing virtually nothing. Anyway, the shots of Kate and the city of Barcelona are what kept my interest. A word of advice, keep the sound off while watching this movie because the music is horrible.