watchhawk

This is a film that describes a rather common superstition in Iceland. A good portion of the Icelandic people believe in mysterious sort of people that can foresee the future in one way or another. These people get some kind of premonition about harmful events or tragic deaths that are bound to happen. This film is the story of one such individual who is an intelligent loner from childhood and starts to draw odd pictures of people floating out of their houses in their beds. He sees an old woman flying on her broom and later gets acquainted with her since she was just a lonesome grumpy widow that lived close by. The boy grows up and is very peculiar, shown as melancholic and apathetic adult for most parts. He seems to suffer from a "post-traumatic stress syndrome" but still manges to charm his art teacher. The pace of the story is dreadfully slow and affect is gloomy, sometimes totally displaced and mostly boring. For those who believe in such crap as telepathy or mystical gifted persons with pre-disaster premonitions this movie is a godsend. For those skeptics out there who are walking on the earth, and not flying on broomsticks - do not waste your time and money watching this close to intellectually empty film. For those who have not had enough of watching steep Icelandic fjords - take a look and enjoy! Out of respect to some of the fairly good acting and cinematography I give it 5/10.

I went to see this movie to kill some time. The movie ended killing me - well almost. It was so strong that I was dumbfounded by it - utterly paralyzed. Tarantino's Kill Bill is a toddler's movie compared to this one. I am seeing this movie in January 2005 but it was released in 2003! How did this great movie pass me by? How did this great movie pass the Oscar's? This story of hatred, love and revenge is based on a story that is perhaps not very original but still, but still it is. It has lot of twists that are not easily foreseeable and the powerful emotional acting of the main characters is just astounding. Style and artistic tricks and effects are of great variety and amazement. Editing starts like a badly done home made film but gradually gets more refine and delivers the end as a masterpiece. The cinematographic close ups deliver strong emotion but also humor. The film keeps its strong national style and that makes it still more interesting. A must see film for all film lovers but not a movie for those faint at heart. My 10/10.

This movie is just brilliant. We all have relationships that become victim of every day boredom and our imperfections. What if we could erase the memory of our painful past and failed love affairs? The pain would perhaps go away and we could continue without dragging the past. This is the essence of this movie. It is about choices too, the choices of life. Shooting, characterization, acting, editing, plot and storytelling are all great. Wonderful cast and Jim Carrey played a gloomy ordinary man that had joyful streaks when with his love interest who is played Kate Winslet. He performs greatly and leaves the exaggerated style of his former comic personalities perfectly behind. This movie definitely proves his talent for drama roles. He is stepping up to the platform of the greatest and should be nominated for Oscars next year. Mr. Kaufman's script is just wonderful. I could go on and on about the little pleasurable and intellectually stimulating things this film brings up. Anyone who cares for seeing the best of the crop should see this masterpiece. 10 out of 10 without hesitation from me.