Hyde Park International, Merchant Ivory Productions
Omar Metwally, Anthony Hopkins, Laura Linney, Charlotte Gainsbourg, Hiroyuki Sanada, Norma Alleandro, Alexandra Maria Lara, Kate Burton, Norma Argentina
I’ve struggled with this review. I was anxious to see the movie, but waited from the time it was released on DVD for the release on “Watch Instantly”. I liked the premise and I thought it would be good, but it was a lot different from what I expected. This is a very cerebral movie and it is dreadfully slow. The basis of the story is a writer who has conned the school to give him a grant to write a biography of a South American author who published one famous book and then died. Problem is that he has no permission to write such a book. So his overly demanding girlfriend/fiance coerces him into going to South America to ask permission of the author’s family.
And what a family it is. The house is being run by the widow (Laura Linney) in a crotchety role, with the help of a gay relative (Anthony Hopkins) and her husband’s mistress. Each is a misfit, and what a dysfunctional family this is.
The whole thing is rather strange, and goes about it very slowly! I’m not sure if this is classic cinema and wonderful storytelling, or crap. I find myself leaning toward the crap side, but I can’t seem to get it out of my head either. So maybe they’re clever after all??? Anthony Hopkins is an awful flaming gay queen character. He can’t pull that off. And Laura Linney is supposed to be this bitch old lady which Bette Davis used to be able to pull off so well, but unfortuantely here, its not nearly as bitchy as it’s supposed to be. I didn’t buy it. The two relatively unknown actors seemed to pull it off more than anyone, so maybe the lack of notariety is an advantage here. Not sure.
The wife says “No”. The queen says, “Yes, but”….and the conditions are really strange. It is sort of explained, but it gets resolved in 2 sentences and the urgency and need seems to fade away leaving you wondering why it was such a big deal? The mistress takes a liking to the guy, and one of the “While You Were Sleeping” moments occurs. This also warranted big drama when the plot was discovered, but again it was dissolved by a shrug and sigh, and plods straight along without looking back at it.
The ending is also particularly NON-stunning as well. It just sort of comes to an end. “Who was that? Oh, just someone that I used to know”
All in all I didn’t rate this very high as I didn’t enjoy it very much. I was slightly interested in what would happen, but mostly I was disappointed, and in the end I realized I didn’t really care if he wrote the damn book or not. I know some people are going to go gaga over this film and call it fine art cinema, but for the average guy, this is mostly boring. I am really willing to discuss further if any fans want to disagree, but it didn’t move the earth for me, that’s for sure.
EdG – EdsReview Dot Com – A Movie Review Blog
