To the Wonder (2012)
Country: US
Technical: col/2.35:1 112m
Director: Terrence Malick
Cast: Ben Affleck, Olga Kurylenko, Rachel McAdams, Javier Bardem
Synopsis:
An American agronomist takes his French-speaking Ukrainian girlfriend and her daughter home with him to Oklahoma, but after the initial euphoria she feels increasingly marginalised in his life, and in her strange surroundings. She meets a Mexican priest who struggles with his faith, while her husband rekindles the flame with his childhood sweetheart.
Review:
A ravishing prologue in Paris and on the Mont St Michel gives way to a confused account of 'what went wrong', in which the director messes with chronology and spends much of the time gazing at the graceful figure of Miss Kurylenko, presumably from Affleck's point of view (he, meanwhile, is mostly off-camera and barely needs to deliver a performance). It should be added that there is no dialogue worth the name, only interior monologue, and that confined to the two émigré characters, as if it is their impressions of American culture that count here. Fragments of Harold in Italy and Parsifal stand out in a customarily eclectic soundtrack, serving to underline the mood of the images, but the lack of clarity (what happens to the McAdams character exactly?) and inordinate length make the overall effect repetitious and jejune. Note: the title refers to the steps of the Mont St Michel ('...grimper à la merveille').
Country: US
Technical: col/2.35:1 112m
Director: Terrence Malick
Cast: Ben Affleck, Olga Kurylenko, Rachel McAdams, Javier Bardem
Synopsis:
An American agronomist takes his French-speaking Ukrainian girlfriend and her daughter home with him to Oklahoma, but after the initial euphoria she feels increasingly marginalised in his life, and in her strange surroundings. She meets a Mexican priest who struggles with his faith, while her husband rekindles the flame with his childhood sweetheart.
Review:
A ravishing prologue in Paris and on the Mont St Michel gives way to a confused account of 'what went wrong', in which the director messes with chronology and spends much of the time gazing at the graceful figure of Miss Kurylenko, presumably from Affleck's point of view (he, meanwhile, is mostly off-camera and barely needs to deliver a performance). It should be added that there is no dialogue worth the name, only interior monologue, and that confined to the two émigré characters, as if it is their impressions of American culture that count here. Fragments of Harold in Italy and Parsifal stand out in a customarily eclectic soundtrack, serving to underline the mood of the images, but the lack of clarity (what happens to the McAdams character exactly?) and inordinate length make the overall effect repetitious and jejune. Note: the title refers to the steps of the Mont St Michel ('...grimper à la merveille').
Country: US
Technical: col/2.35:1 112m
Director: Terrence Malick
Cast: Ben Affleck, Olga Kurylenko, Rachel McAdams, Javier Bardem
Synopsis:
An American agronomist takes his French-speaking Ukrainian girlfriend and her daughter home with him to Oklahoma, but after the initial euphoria she feels increasingly marginalised in his life, and in her strange surroundings. She meets a Mexican priest who struggles with his faith, while her husband rekindles the flame with his childhood sweetheart.
Review:
A ravishing prologue in Paris and on the Mont St Michel gives way to a confused account of 'what went wrong', in which the director messes with chronology and spends much of the time gazing at the graceful figure of Miss Kurylenko, presumably from Affleck's point of view (he, meanwhile, is mostly off-camera and barely needs to deliver a performance). It should be added that there is no dialogue worth the name, only interior monologue, and that confined to the two émigré characters, as if it is their impressions of American culture that count here. Fragments of Harold in Italy and Parsifal stand out in a customarily eclectic soundtrack, serving to underline the mood of the images, but the lack of clarity (what happens to the McAdams character exactly?) and inordinate length make the overall effect repetitious and jejune. Note: the title refers to the steps of the Mont St Michel ('...grimper à la merveille').