This movie left me feeling very confused. I re-played it in my head over and over to understand what is wrong with me, and be able to pinpoint what bothered me exactly. It is the juxtaposition between beautiful cinematography, great actors, and on the other side - a borderline pretentious script and extremely slow, unnerving, silently loud, yet empty, development of the story.
The long pauses, the recurring anti-climax vibe of each scene ultimately left me feeling emotionally drained. The main characters are unevenly developed, it was very difficult to get to their core, get to know them. Everything felt very "almost there" - the movie kept trying so hard to make a promise of a grand emotional awakening from empathising with the intensity of the plot - which simply did not happen - as intriguing as the plot had sounded, its execution was simply plain. The movie did not evoke any emotion in me, despite it being so visually stunning.
I felt tricked - like all these slow, zoomed in scenes were supposed to draw me in, make me feel empathetic, make me want to understand why all of this is happening.
In reality I kept seeing the recurring singular layer of an unhealthy level of mutual obsession, without giving the viewer any space to get to the "why". I would have enjoyed seeing the characters in a different setting, outside of their relationship - the movie portrayed them in a very one dimensional way.
Beautifully shot movie, and I applaud the selection and performance of the actors - but this is another proof that great cinematography and a strong cast cannot save a crippled story, desperate for development, and yet stuck at square one. I enjoy movies which make me think, question, empathise, not confused and frankly - bored.
