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Movie: "Winter's Tale"
Showtime: Akiva Goldsman
Rating: PG-13
Running Time: 1 hour, 57 minutes
Every person who is born is born with one miracle. How they choose to use it is their destiny. Peter Lake (Colin Farrell) is a thief who is on the outs with his former boss Pearly Soames (Russell Crowe). Pearly is more than just Peter's employer: he is a demon who roams the Earth blackening souls and crushing miracles. He is trying to stop Peter from bringing his life's miracle to fruition. Peter, unbeknownst to him, is guided by angels and spirit guides to his destiny. While robbing houses one day, Peter stumbles upon what he thinks is a vacant home and runs into Beverly Penn (Jessica Brown Findlay), dying daughter of newspaper publisher Isaac Penn (William Hurt). Peter and Beverly fall in love at first sight and begin a romance with one another. Pearly has a vision that Peter is destined to use his miracle to save a red-headed girl, and he believes Beverly is that girl. Pearly will stop at nothing to ruin Peter's miracle.
With a release date of February 14th, 2014, "Winter's Tale" was heavily marketed as a romance movie. While there are definitely those elements to this film, we feel if promoters would have marketed this as what it really was, a fantastical drama about miracles, demons, and the battle between good vs. evil, it may have done better at the box office. In that same vein, if director Akiva Goldsman would have focused on these elements instead of the romantic aspect of the story, he could have made a better movie altogether.
Beyond this, there are still a lot of problems with this movie. The biggest problem is also the funniest problem. Will Smith as Lucifer????? REALLY??????? We couldn't help but audibly laugh during his parts. Between his really deep voice, his "serious" acting face, his gigantic diamond earrings, and the fact that he has no intimidating factors whatsoever just makes this a terrible miscast...one of the worst, pretty much. Will Smith is too goody-two-shoes and likable in his mannerisms to be seen as the scary Prince of Darkness. Beyond this glaring mistake, most of the acting is fine. I personally find myself liking Colin Farrell the more I see him act. I started out not caring for him, but he has proven himself many times to be a decent enough actor. This movie seems like it's the non-Downton Abbey, American introduction to Jessica Brown Findlay. Many of the actors and actresses from that show have tried to crossover into American mainstream audiences with little or no success, so hopefully, that eventually changes.
Overall, this is one recent movie you can probably skip and not feel bad about it. Other minor things to mention: the CGI is really poor and looks blatantly fake. William Hurt does not get enough screen time. Russell Crowe is a really bitchin' bad guy...Will Smith, since I know you're reading, TAKE NOTE.
My Rating: 4/10Showtime: Akiva Goldsman
Rating: PG-13
Running Time: 1 hour, 57 minutes
Every person who is born is born with one miracle. How they choose to use it is their destiny. Peter Lake (Colin Farrell) is a thief who is on the outs with his former boss Pearly Soames (Russell Crowe). Pearly is more than just Peter's employer: he is a demon who roams the Earth blackening souls and crushing miracles. He is trying to stop Peter from bringing his life's miracle to fruition. Peter, unbeknownst to him, is guided by angels and spirit guides to his destiny. While robbing houses one day, Peter stumbles upon what he thinks is a vacant home and runs into Beverly Penn (Jessica Brown Findlay), dying daughter of newspaper publisher Isaac Penn (William Hurt). Peter and Beverly fall in love at first sight and begin a romance with one another. Pearly has a vision that Peter is destined to use his miracle to save a red-headed girl, and he believes Beverly is that girl. Pearly will stop at nothing to ruin Peter's miracle.
With a release date of February 14th, 2014, "Winter's Tale" was heavily marketed as a romance movie. While there are definitely those elements to this film, we feel if promoters would have marketed this as what it really was, a fantastical drama about miracles, demons, and the battle between good vs. evil, it may have done better at the box office. In that same vein, if director Akiva Goldsman would have focused on these elements instead of the romantic aspect of the story, he could have made a better movie altogether.
Beyond this, there are still a lot of problems with this movie. The biggest problem is also the funniest problem. Will Smith as Lucifer????? REALLY??????? We couldn't help but audibly laugh during his parts. Between his really deep voice, his "serious" acting face, his gigantic diamond earrings, and the fact that he has no intimidating factors whatsoever just makes this a terrible miscast...one of the worst, pretty much. Will Smith is too goody-two-shoes and likable in his mannerisms to be seen as the scary Prince of Darkness. Beyond this glaring mistake, most of the acting is fine. I personally find myself liking Colin Farrell the more I see him act. I started out not caring for him, but he has proven himself many times to be a decent enough actor. This movie seems like it's the non-Downton Abbey, American introduction to Jessica Brown Findlay. Many of the actors and actresses from that show have tried to crossover into American mainstream audiences with little or no success, so hopefully, that eventually changes.
Overall, this is one recent movie you can probably skip and not feel bad about it. Other minor things to mention: the CGI is really poor and looks blatantly fake. William Hurt does not get enough screen time. Russell Crowe is a really bitchin' bad guy...Will Smith, since I know you're reading, TAKE NOTE.
BigJ's Rating: 5/10
IMDB's Rating: 6.2/10
Rotten Tomatoes Rating: 13%
Do we recommend this movie: No.
I rented this movie over a year ago from Red-Box. I fell in love with it so searched for it and there it was...on Amazon! Imagine that. Very enchanting.
ReplyDeleteHi there, we would definitely give this movie another watch since we saw it over 4 years ago in the theater! Glad you enjoyed it!
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