luhlin

I feel compelled to be brief in reviewing this movie; probably because I feel the need for a counter-weight to balance the confusing snail's pace set by the director. And, what for? I'm not sure I have the time to wait for an answer given this experience and test of tedium. That said, the cinematography is wonderful and exceedingly expressive. The movie, in the main, suggested to me that the director is a wannabe Bergman, getting the Nykvist part right with the rest a dismal failure and shameful waste of money.

My wife and I wanted to like this movie and waited patiently to see it unfold, alas it merely folded.

I was looking forward to this bilingual European movie. However it turned out to be quite preposterous. The music was very good, cinematography reasonably good, interesting locations. But it became hard to believe in the characters, especially the leading man. On the one hand he is a thief, he drinks incessantly, using drugs frequently and yet he is set up to portray a doctor involved in international humanitarian work and has to pull that off against masterful forces in espionage. Not only does he tackle characters written as heavyweights in the spy business, but he clearly defies those who are giving him a break and then unbelievably gets caught up in tearful grieving for one of the characters whom he is disobeying. The script seems to have been written as the movie proceeded from one scene to another. There is no real connectivity or logic to the protagonists actions whether in his role as the humanitarian or as the hapless degenerate druggie who got caught out. The premise of using such a loser for an important international espionage event boggles the mind. The principal women of the film while reasonable good actors and very attractive really are unable to pull off two of the films turning point events, solely because of the impracticality and unbelievability of their tasks - again, it looks like a script written on the fly. Finally, what is it about films that have the central stars locate each other in one of the world's busiest airports? Most of us have trouble finding a washroom.

Okay, I'm getting older and my hearing is not as sharp as it was, but that aside, I found the lead actors diction, tone, accent and overall sound reproduction frustrating. I barely understood half of what Jones said when he was on screen.

What dialogue I did get was too predictable, rather like the entire plot line and scenes. This film could have been reduced to less than 90 minutes (it might have been more tolerable).

Was this supposed to have been a love story? The woman's lead was so out of touch with reality that she seemed to be rather accidental to the entire film.

The ending was absurd and wholly unworthy of Derek Jocobi. Charles Dickens would have been so upset!