El cuento de los cuentos

It's a fantastic audio-visual journey that takes you into a world of medieval fantasies full of all the classical elements but with fresh stories and views. If you enjoy the work of Paolo Sorrentino (2013 Oscar for "La grande bellezza") you will love this film for it's masterful craft of building a world within. Only Salma Hayek delivers a disappointing performance: Stiff and uninspired. Pictures, music as well as sound design and costumes (not to mention the practical effects) are all stunning! Italy (with the help of France and the UK) delivers once again a masterpiece on the very tight budget of only 12 million €uros while the rest of European cinema is sleeping.

This is not your average princess and prince tales, it is a series of the grim version of myths without warm Disney filter. The multiple stories are woven together in one underlying tragic theme, occasionally wicked Tale of Tales is definitely not for children. The most vexing thing about it is not the scandalous tale, but the slow pacing as it tries to deliver three nearly horror stories.

The focus continuously shifts between monarchs from three separate kingdoms. Each of them is affected by equally peculiar plaguing events. One queen's over protective nature rules over her senses, a king's lust leads to mishap in bed and a princess' wedding becomes malady as she faces an ogre as the groom.

Its screenplay is mixed feeling of innocence remnant and utter perversion. There's a good quality of cast to ensure overall bizarre atmosphere, and make no mistake, these stories can be downright disturbing for some. The director even adds a couple gore scenes or rather appalling instances which are shockingly unexpected, even more so considering the colorful setting.

Visual is very good, the medieval vibe simply oozes from the scenery. It resembles a lively stage for dramatic play yet feels convincingly dreadful enough. Production, from make-up and costume, looks captivating and sometimes intimidating. As many TV series or movies adapt modernization of fairy tales, this one is more memorable with the eccentric outlook and more modest on CGI usage.

However, it can be a bit slow. The three stories span across more than two hours, so it takes its time. Fortunately, it sets the characters really well, but on the flip side, some of scenes feel plodding. Tales of Tales might resemble the iconic Pan's Labyrinth at some turns, although it's still not on such legendary stature.

This movie is certainly not for everyone. The mixture of odd fables and near horror elements leave strange lasting trail, it might not be all merry party yet it's enigmatically and irresistibly bewitching.

The royal court roars with laughter. A group of jesters grin and jeer at one another, do cartwheels, breathe fire. In the midst of all this mirth, the Queen sits sad and silent on her throne. Her eyes fall on one of the players and suddenly she runs off, distraught. The King chases after her, shouting that he is sorry, that he did not know. His apologies fall on deaf ears.

So begins Tale of Tales, Matteo Garrone's visually striking, but ultimately uninspiring adaptation of the Pentamerone, a book of Italian folk stories collected in the 17th century.The film cuts between three separate narrative strands, linked together by the unifying theme of all-consuming obsession. One tale centres around a monarch mad with lust, and two crones in his kingdom who desire only to be young again. Another depicts a woman who will do anything for motherhood. The third tale introduces us to a king's unhealthy fascination with a flea, and an ogre unable to set free his reluctant and unhappy bride.

Fairy tales these may be, but their delightfully disturbing content ensures that they are not meant for children. (At least by modern, if not by 17th century standards – the Pentamerone, just as full of sex and violence as Garrone's 15 rated film, was subtitled 'Entertainment for Little Ones'). Yet even though Tale of Tales is too graphic and gruesome for kids and is clearly aimed at older audiences, it remains too childishly straightforward to be captivating. I would have needed either more nuance or more mystery and suggestion for the film to draw me in and immerse me in its world. There are, for instance, scenes where characters morph into a different physical shape. Had these transformations remained unexplained by the narrative they would have evoked a sense of wonder and significance, like visual poems hinting at some elusive but compelling underlying idea. Instead, the characters transform because a magician cast a spell, and there is nothing to think about. It is the kind of simple cause and effect storytelling with a clear moral – for all three narrative strands put forward the idea that 'obsession is not good for you' – which works so well for children's stories, but is too obvious to really interest adults.

To be fair, it was never Garrone's intention to prompt intellectual engagement with Tale of Tales. 'Don't try to understand it. Just feel it, like when you are standing in front of a painting. Follow the characters, take the journey, feel the emotion,' the director said in a Guardian interview. But the characters are too one-dimensional to seem real, and I found it hard to care about their lives or fates. They also speak far too much to function well as figures onto whom one can project emotion, like when one is standing in front of a painting. It should have been show not tell, with the camera lingering on the characters' facial expressions, and allowing spectators to empathise and identify with them. Instead, feelings, from love to longing, are spoken – 'He's like a brother to me', 'I want to be young again' – and the action moves forward.

Less would have been more, with Tale of Tales. The power of the film lies in its visuals, which are beguiling, gorgeous and grotesque. The dialogues and narrative explanations serve only to trivialise the images, lessening the overall effect of the film. The trailer for Tale of Tales, a succession of visuals set to nothing but music,is better than the film itself.

This is an anthology of adult fairy tales. Rather than one after the other with a tie together the film opts for a more unusual parallel running of the three stories.

If I was to sum this up in one word I would say it is unorthodox. The characters and plots do not conform to the normal templates you would expect, either do the themes. The plots twist and turn like a path into a dark enchanted wood.

This film has excellent production, acting, script. There were more boobs, gore, rape and breast feeding than I was expecting but saying that, this film is not pornographic, disturbing or violent; a pretty safe watch.

The story lines keep you guessing as they have a life of their own. This is very refreshing but causes a satisfaction problem I also did not expect.

Consider this: Imagine you watch a film about a man planning to sail to Hawaii. You follow him as he builds his boat, saves up money, gets his sailors licence and an anchor tattoo. Then fifty minutes in, the boat burns down so he buy a plane ticket instead. If you think that sounds really annoying then you may want to give this a miss.

Very interesting, very different, well acted and produced. It keeps you on your toes the whole way. Don't expect the pay-off to be too great or to head anywhere near you thought it would.

I had the chance to see this movie. As with most, I didn't have a chance to see any trailers so I had no idea what to expect.

In a word, I would call the movie unique and not just another fairy tale movie like all the others. These have a darker twist to them and a fate and/or consequences for those involved. The movie has definite pluses and minuses.

Definite pluses: the music, the costumes, the beautiful exotic settings, the special effects, and the acting and choice of cast. All were very good.

I'm neutral on the separate plots. Some people say the plots are related and some say they aren't. I guess that's up to the viewer and how he/she interprets them. I'm not a particular fan of the macabre.

Definite minus: the movie as a whole piece of work is kind of a mess. The three stories jump around and there is no smooth time line of events. They are all kind of just thrown together. A visual mess.

Another minus: the ending. It just ends leaving you hanging and wondering what happened to certain people.

This movie is so unique that is can have such exceptional cinematography but yet have such jumbled up plot lines.

I guess the only main theme across all the stories is about obsession and how it can affect you and those around you if it is not kept under control.