Planetarium

The movie, despite being beautifully shot, was boring. Natalie Portman and Lilly-Rose Depp were both great in the film, Lilly-Rose Depp especially, but sadly their great acting, and good cinematography, the plot was so boring that I could barely force myself to stay awake. Covering the story of two sisters who can communicate with the dead, this movie starts with promise. The mystery of their ability, and the stellar performances from the two lead actresses carry you through the first half hour or so, but quickly their good performances are over shadowed by the bad performances from the supporting European actors, most of who were heavily accented and clearly didn't speak french as their first language. I waited over an hour in pouring rain at TIFF to see this film and regret every second of time wasted waiting and watching. Do not recommend this movie for anyone

Two American sisters, Laura and Kate Barlow (Natalie Portman and Lily-Rose Deep) tour some theaters in Europe shortly before World War II with a spiritualism number, as one of them is a medium. When they are seen in Paris by André Korben, a film producer (Emmanuel Salinger), he becomes enthusiastic about them and proposes a project to them.

Plantarium is one of those films that contains interesting approaches (even intriguing and perverse) and several good ideas but that do not manage to integrate satisfactorily and that end up disintegrating, partly due to their nature, due to an ambiguity that is no longer effective and above all because of its cinematographic realization.

We know that a planetarium is a device that projects an illusory sky onto a vault. One of the themes of Rebecca Zlotowski's film is the crossroads between reality and fiction through cinematography (reminiscent of some stories by Horacio Quiroga on the subject) and a reality that in this case is ambiguous and that also seeks the help of parapsychology and the dream. As for the title in Spanish (Connection of love) it alludes to one of the perverse aspects of the plot (perhaps the most original) that remains halfway. And all this in a climate of the time that wants to be emerging but without achieving it at all.

Planetarium offers a very good performance by Emmnuel Salinger and as usual in these productions, a beautiful art design.

What this movie needs is more SUBSTANCE! We haven't a GHOST of a chance of being drawn into this play, because there is only loosely knit ideas..a faint line outlining what may become...something..but what ?? What a waste of talent!! Teaming Ms. Depp and Ms. Portman had me waiting impatiently to view this movie. typically...my favorite actors choose worthwhile projects. Natalie's last couple of endeavors, have left MUCH to be desired.

This movie needs to be connected...those dots of ideas need to be connected by story line we can understand and follow. Leave the abstract included....but fill it in with good ol creative action and dialogue that we can follow and appreciate. Better yet..make the story line COMPELLING !! Who better than Ms. Portman and Ms. Depp to carry a compelling theme ?

We must give Ms. Portman and Ms. Depp their due for taking such a bold chance..experimenting perhaps. But, ..IF they want to continue to be able to take such risks, they better choose a WINNER next few times round, or their names and past acting performances will be a distant, fond memory. Remember her?...Loved her in that one !

Very interesting characters. The pre WWII event. About two orphan sisters trying to make a living. The best they came up with is to help the people to make contact with their loved ones who had died. So far so successful. Especially when a notable filmmaker takes interest on them, their lives begin to change. Those were what shown to us in the rest of the film. But there comes a complication, especially the bond between the sisters was tested, and followed by the filmmaker's reputation.

There were many English dialogues. The casting was so good. The lead three was great. But there's something about the story. Overall, it looked decent, but I don't know that they cinematically well transformed. Looks like a literature kind of tale, yet it was not adapted from any such source. That is what's missing in here. You know, the good writer's perspective. They know how to take the story in a right direction.

I felt they messed the conclusion. All the sudden too much had happened. Even the twist did not feel like it was a twist. All the above, there's no strong emotional effect. The middle section was so plain. All I felt was the two sisters struggle. The rest did not make the film shine. Could be one time watchable, but I'm not sure you would like it at the end.

5/10

I watched the whole film and still have no idea what it's about. It's beautifully shot, but the story is unintelligible.