Century Hotel

This movie was an intriguing concept- I'd read a bit about it. One room in one hotel, different years, different people. However, I found it highly disappointing for three main reasons. The first is that many of the vignettes are rather disjointed and uneven, which makes the plot really confusing and hard to follow at times. The vignettes continually weave in and out of each other, which only confused this viewer. The second is the inordinate amount of sex and foul language used in the film, often with no context. While I'm no prude, I felt that there was just too much of both in this movie, and it was overused. Did every vignette need to have some sort of sex scene? Often, no context is given. The third reason is that the particular hotel where the room is located could have been better explained. What type of hotel is it? Where is it?

Once in a while, one rents a potentially interesting movie that turns out to be a big disappointment. This was one of those for me.

This all takes place in the very same room of a hotel at different times (old & modern). Although it starts off rather indifferently, it slowly unfolds into small really interesting stories which finally end up delivering the "goods" and being satisfying, at least to me. Unpredictable, with intense use of colour filters, it succeeds in its goal and in spite of dealing with -not-so-original- subject matters, it still remains authentic in story, technic & style and leaves you with a smile. Not for everyone...

A young woman (Lindy Booth) lodges in the room 720 of the Century Hotel and the old bellboy tells that that room has several stories. Along the years, an old man marries a young virgin; a whore and her client fall in love with each other; a man is left by his wife and seeks her out in the hotel; a musician and the chambermaid has a weird relationship; two friends from navy have a gay relationship; a Chinese woman comes to America to get married with a powerful Chinese. Some of the relationships have good ending, others have tragic conclusion.

"Century Hotel" is a movie with a good storyline of romances along many decades in a hotel room. However, the screenplay is boring with too long and fragmented with entwined segments. The most attractive plot is certainly the love story of a prostitute performed by the gorgeous Mia Kirshner and her client. Unfortunately the movie does not work well. My vote is five.

Title (Brazil): Not Available

A score of seven might seem a bit high for a "decent" movie, but I so rarely enjoy movies these days that this one deserves it.

Basically, it's seven stories that happen in this one hotel room at different points in the twentieth century. Some of the stories are good, some are only mediocre, but overall it's a nice effect. The distinct atmosphere of each story gives you a good feel for the changing time periods. The transitions take a bit of getting used to at first, but I've seen worse. The ending isn't anything spectacular, but it fits in all right with the rest of the movie.

This is the kind of movie that you can walk away from without feeling that you've wasted an hour and a half of your life. As a rule, I like that in entertainment. It's an interesting film that never slows down so much as to lose your attention. It's not a heavy film by any means; it's even got it's amusing moments. Watch it some evening when you've got nothing better to do.

I got this film on the strength of one actress that I like... Lindy Booth. Her performance in Century Hotel seems a little below par, but it was adequate.

The film doesn't seem to go anyway in the first hour, but then it unfolds nicely after that. Which is unfortunate since the film is only about 90 minutes long.

The Cantonese pronunciations were absolutely crap. I didn't they just stick to using imitation bad English (Canadian) accents instead of getting the actors to speak very poor Cantonese? Or perhaps they should have rewritten that part of the script. Sorry, it's a nitpick, but I believe films are an art form and, as such, should be given more TLC than Century Hotel was given.

I did like the little "twist" regarding the soldier guy who was soon to be married to his sweetheart who he hadn't seen for a long time. Watch the film and you'll find out!

All in all, this wasn't a bad film. But they could've done so much more with it. 6/10 is a fair indication of its entertainment value.