Pearl

Simple plotline and the acting that never touches the heart.

The acting was dreadful. Pearl could have learned responsibility at the end of the film, but she didn't. Instead, she is glorified for what she did. Life isn't that simple. The film ends too abruptly.

Characters were underdeveloped, the climactic point wasn't developed enough either. It just left me hanging at the end. If the movie had been given more time, it could have been truly excellent, but there were too many characters who had conflicts/things to settle with the main character, Pearl. These never got resolved at the end. At the end I was thinking, "What about the struggle with this person? The issue this person has?" Well, you don't get to know what happens to them. So although the movie could have been great, there was about a half hour or more that seems to have been cut off at the end. The movie does draw an important point: Americans are greatly spoiled, and Pearl was a great example of this. Maybe the writer was thinking in that same spoiled mind frame, not taking to account what happens to the other characters. Hence, I give it five stars for some good parts, but really that made it all the more disappointing when a couple of main characters/issues were, for lack of better wording, just thrown out the window.

The movie never really kicked into gear, as the entire story is quite dull. The characters were initially not introduced beyond the surface and as the movie progressed there were some attempts to further develop these characters. Alas, this did not only take way too long, but were underwhelming flat. The acting was so plain - the characters never shed a tear... Also, can they not at least try to look like they are playing the piano?

The cinematography was incompetent, as the camera crew could be seen throughout the movie. The directing was odd too, with constant flashbacks repeatedly interrupting the flow of the movie - even though it was an attempt to convey a characters emotions.

The movie tried time and time again to introduce a new conflict to not lose interest in the script - and it was a failure every single time, since they never influenced the story or the characters in anyway...

The ending was a letdown, and not because of the ending, but the build up. A simple run-through of the script and it would be too apparent that the movie focused on the wrong relationship between the characters...

My husband and I watched Pearl the other night and found it beautiful to watch, even though the subject matter was darker than I expected. The first thought we had after watching the film was .... "poetry in motion." There was a touch of metaphysics in a graveyard scene near the end that brought in a few tears, along with a skosh of the spiritual and the unknown knowingness that there is a thread in life that is unseen, but often felt. Moments at those intersections help to recalibrate difficult, sometimes untenable emotions. We thought the director did a damn good job of dealing with trauma and tragedy in a unique way. We enjoy films that encourage us to look between the lines at what isn't being said.... Pearl did that for us. The light hand of music placed thoughtfully throughout was a beautiful choice. And Patti Scialfa's voice is angelic. We're embarrassed to say we had never heard its stand alone unique beauty before. The music and the lyrics touched us deeply. Good performances from the cast. Solid direction from the director.