This is one of those Indy projects the 'in' crowd convinces each other they are hip to like. No fault of cast nor photographer team, as they are excellent.
But the thick cockney accents and jerky script scene direction shifts make it almost a professional effort to hone the ear to make any sense of each scene.
There are also excessive time spent showing primarily the main character typing on her laptop, and even on my 50" tv, nothing she's typing is big enough on the screen to be legible plus the fleeting views cut away so fast, even if it was legible, probably not enough time to make sense of entire screen...why so many scenes wasted on that?!
Most of the music is dour, drab like some of the scenes, and just adds to an agony about this effort...you want it to get good, make its points, but between so much disjointed scene transition and the hideous cockney chortle, it's only a film a fully cockney speaking person could keep up with. Not a fair score to some perhaps, but from most Americans' ear, the dialogue is only perhaps 50% decipherable as it's spoken, and that dynamic consumes your mental attention. It takes on a 'chore' mindset to catch a complete sentence, that combined with the poor directorial edits and scenes that don't mesh, it's a subdued mess.
It's a good film for those in filmmaking industry to see what can still go wrong with strong acting and photography that it's not enough to resonate.
Awards for this film are bizarre, as are high scores. Anyone giving this over a 6 are kidding themselves...the 8 & 9 scores, really?! That's simply dishonest sorry but take the top Michael Caine movies that truly earn an 8 or 9, or Nicholson etc...this movie isn't as good as even the WORST Caine or Nicholson movie to be honest. Bias aside, take your pick of Meryl Streep Betty Davis Heddy Lamar etc catalog, and someone scoring this like it's some 'timeless classic' ... It's alarming.
And dishonest.
But the thick cockney accents and jerky script scene direction shifts make it almost a professional effort to hone the ear to make any sense of each scene.
There are also excessive time spent showing primarily the main character typing on her laptop, and even on my 50" tv, nothing she's typing is big enough on the screen to be legible plus the fleeting views cut away so fast, even if it was legible, probably not enough time to make sense of entire screen...why so many scenes wasted on that?!
Most of the music is dour, drab like some of the scenes, and just adds to an agony about this effort...you want it to get good, make its points, but between so much disjointed scene transition and the hideous cockney chortle, it's only a film a fully cockney speaking person could keep up with. Not a fair score to some perhaps, but from most Americans' ear, the dialogue is only perhaps 50% decipherable as it's spoken, and that dynamic consumes your mental attention. It takes on a 'chore' mindset to catch a complete sentence, that combined with the poor directorial edits and scenes that don't mesh, it's a subdued mess.
It's a good film for those in filmmaking industry to see what can still go wrong with strong acting and photography that it's not enough to resonate.
Awards for this film are bizarre, as are high scores. Anyone giving this over a 6 are kidding themselves...the 8 & 9 scores, really?! That's simply dishonest sorry but take the top Michael Caine movies that truly earn an 8 or 9, or Nicholson etc...this movie isn't as good as even the WORST Caine or Nicholson movie to be honest. Bias aside, take your pick of Meryl Streep Betty Davis Heddy Lamar etc catalog, and someone scoring this like it's some 'timeless classic' ... It's alarming.
And dishonest.