Longing

Fiction, whether a book or a film, always requires a willing suspension of disbelief. After all, it's entertainment: you know life and events rarely move forward the way the author presents them, but it's enjoyable to imagine the 'what if?'.

Richard Gere brings his A-game to everything he does. For the first half of the movie, I believe him, and I can see his character's journey. But then, things no longer make sense.

Why does everyone talk and act as if the deceased son was still alive? Why do the supporting characters go along with the craziness? Why does the movie suddenly drop the connection to Daniel's business in New York?

Are all the events of the movie supposed to happen within a week? If so, how could the final scene be even possible?

I like how the movie slowly unfolds and paints a realistic picture of the deceased son with a rich but flawed personality. If the movie focused on how Daniel reassesses his own life based on the life of a son he never knew he had until the week before, I think this would have been a fine movie. But the film adds one implausibility to another and another, until I can no longer suspend my disbelief.

In uncomfortably odd drama "Longing" Canadian Suzanne Clément suddenly tells ex-bf NY mogul Richard Gere that after they split up 20yrs ago she had his son... who's now just died in a car crash. Cue Gere taking off to Cambridge, Ontario to learn some harsh truths about the lad (from the likes of Diane Kruger) while engaging in some pushy and downright bizarre behaviour (like arranging a wedding between the dead son he never knew and a dead girl that the boy had also never met). What writer / director Savi Gabizon was going for in remaking his own 2007 Israeli original (of the same name) is unclear... but the result's perplexing... and not in a good way. Flush it.

I saw the previous review and thought, well, it can't be that bad. But, it was. It started out pretty good and then before long devolved into bizarre then insanity. Just strange. I kept thinking that there would be some twist that I didn't see coming and that then I would understand all of the bizarre behavior and acting. That never happened. It just got worse and worse. Even at the end I though that something would happen, but it didn't. Overall I think the acting was fine, but the story was just not very good. The movie left me feeling really nothing, except that I wasted a bunch of time. Don't bother with this movie.

Where do I start? With the superb acting? The genuinely not- cookie- cutter predictable story?

Or how about the true meaning of the film's title as devolves throughout the story?

This work of art left me longing for more films of this caliber.

This is a must- see!

I most enjoyed watching the characters themselves reveal dark secrets from many years past that haunt them, the novel, albeit unusual, way in which they dealt with the concomitant trauma, each character's hard- won redemption, and the graceful way that the story ended: simply and eloquently, never maudlin or sentimental.

And I thought that they didn't make movies this good anymore!

Saw this in a 'surprise' screening of a random new movie.

The movie starts by Richard Gere and his ex from 20 years ago reconnecting, finding out that he had a son etc.

From the starting scene on I wanted to leave the cinema but I had just bought popcorn so decided to soldier on. That was a mistake.

Two hours later movie ended. Not a single laugh / chuckle from audience during the movie. Nobody looked happy while leaving the cinema. People around me were pondering is it ok to just sneak out halfway of the film.

The film was a mess, hard to relate to any of the characters and the grand wedding finale feels very flat. In Cinema I felt a wave of relief that it ended. That was also the only time audience seemed to react to the film.