The Color of Time

Rarely do I review films that I give so few stars. I don't like to write negative stuff. But I'm about to do just that. I watched the film, basically because of the cast which has more than one star actor in it, and also because it's based on poetry and I'm a poet/writer. Unfortunately, despite the all-star cast, the film didn't work. Or, perhaps it worked as well as it could given what the writer/director were trying to do which was bring to life some poems of C.K. Williams. Because of the actors, and some of the photography, the film was easy to look at. In fact, if less good-looking actors had been in it, I probably would have turned it off after ten minutes. Because ultimately, even if one liked the visuals and enjoyed hearing some of Williams' poetry, it was boring. It's not as short as it is (73 minutes) for no reason. I think one has to really enjoy the artiness of the film in order to enjoy the film. If not, there's not a heck of a lot to keep one watching.

Well, I cannot say that I have read any poems by the poet this supposed biography makes a record of. I did start watching it with my lady fair and, hence, saw great potential for an evening of respite and romance... after all, surely a poetic movie will 'do the trick'? Sigh... after ten minutes, my impatient partner pulled the video out of the machine. Sigh, so ,hence, I cannot write a 'spoiler' since I do not know if this poet nixed himself from boredom in the end... Darn! Now I will have to research Wikipedia to find out the real story of an apparently perverted but boring and snoring life's, if movies are to be believed. If one cannot make it past the first ten minutes, why even a '3' for this thing? Oh, I might have watched it to see how much truth there is to it. But, sadly, never got anywhere near to understanding the reason behind this movie in the first place. Lesson to movie producers out there? If you are making a movie for arts sake then let the populace know that its purpose is not to entertain... this one seemed intended to drag people away from the story of poetry by immersing us in the poems and not the real life story...That movie about Stephen Hawking did not immerse us into Hawking's every living moment and astounding words. By trying to do this with this poet, the movie failed.

When i read the reviews (on rotten tomatoes also) i thought i didn't need to write my own, but i think that the audience had it all backwards. They kept on writing stuff like »came here because of Mila Kunis and was disappointed«. Don't you see that these actors are the very reason this film fails so badly? To be honest, what could you expect?

Mila and James (and even Jessica, damn it) are impersonating the hollow shells they are, so you can't even call this pretentious, it's honest to their characters, it's shallow, it's all for show. And the looks are not deceiving, the aesthetics of the movie are nice, but don't expect people to follow this for 90 minutes if you have no substance, no story, no narrative. Works for a video-clip, doesn't make for good feature length.

Poor film class students, just imagine what you could have achieved with such a high profile cast in the 70s. Mind you, they probably wouldn't have let you produce a mindless piece like this, back then.

If this film were about me i wouldn't be flattered. Or maybe i didn't get it: Was the author known to bore people to death? I don't know the poems of the writer as of yet, but a quick look on youtube tells me his ted speech is going to be more rewarding than this ordeal of a movie. So it had a positive outcome. It enticed me to research the author. I do hope he's better!

The story is not clear and the meaning behind it is not there. the cast is fine since we do not know the plot so we can not judge here right!

trying to tell a story based on a poem is a bit hard but may be they could fill in some gaps would make the entire experience much better.

Not on Poe that is and something that might have helped me (maybe others too?) to figure out what it (the movie) was trying to do here. As it is and without any knowledge going into this, I had no clue what to expect. It is clear that everything is kinda connected, but I'm pretty sure the poems themselves make much more sense and are a lot more gripping than the way the movie portray the stories.

The acting cast on hand is good, but feel as disconnected as the rest of the movie most of the time. Maybe if you have read the poems it'll be easier and more enjoyable or maybe this will float your boat no matter what. But I reckon a majority will find this "boring" (or annoying, depending on your mood maybe both). As it is, this slow paced drama is just above the water ...