2015-10-27, 03:40 PM
As I mentioned in the Martian thread I also saw Crimson Peak (CP) when I had a few hours to kill between jobs.
I'm not a big fan del Toro and I can't figure out why. His films should be right up my alley. I love his imagination and the sheer amount of details that he puts into his films. The stories he tells are interesting and are strong enough to intrigue me but he rarely clicks with me. But I keep trying and figured CP should be enough of a spectacle to see on the big scene.
Going into CP, I read some reviews that said the movie was sold wrong. It is sold as horror film with costume drama elements but it is really a costume drama with horror elements. The movie out and out tells you that the ghosts in it are just a representation of the past. They are an element of the film not what the film is about.
So with that in mind I went to see the film. It is definitely a costume drama, especially in the beginning, but the horror elements slowly creep in as it goes and extend beyond the ghosts into murder, insanity and incest. Its that last point that got a bit icky for me. With all those elements, the film reminded me a bit in story structure and values like an Italian giallo.
What didn't remind me a giallo is the production values. The house in the film is amazing. That is not an exaggeration to say it is one of the best production pieces I have seen in awhile. I just love the hole in the middle of the house which shows the seasons. Leaves falling through for the fall, then snow for the winter. As the cliche says the house is a character in of itself.
The actors were overall really good with Hiddleston and Chastain being excellent. Chastain really got to chew the scenery the longer the film went on. While I seen many male actors do this, its rare to see a female actor go gloriously crazy. So that was fun. Wasikowska was also good in the main character role but her role mostly reactionary to the others. Hunnam is basically playing the Scatman Crothers role from the Shinning.
Overall I liked the film but it never totally or tonally gelled for me. The parts were good but the whole was lacking. If someone came to me and said they hated the film I wouldn't defend it because I would probably agree with them on many of their points.
I won't recommend it for an outing to the theater but for a rental I've seen far, far worse. Just come with expectations low.
I'm not a big fan del Toro and I can't figure out why. His films should be right up my alley. I love his imagination and the sheer amount of details that he puts into his films. The stories he tells are interesting and are strong enough to intrigue me but he rarely clicks with me. But I keep trying and figured CP should be enough of a spectacle to see on the big scene.
Going into CP, I read some reviews that said the movie was sold wrong. It is sold as horror film with costume drama elements but it is really a costume drama with horror elements. The movie out and out tells you that the ghosts in it are just a representation of the past. They are an element of the film not what the film is about.
So with that in mind I went to see the film. It is definitely a costume drama, especially in the beginning, but the horror elements slowly creep in as it goes and extend beyond the ghosts into murder, insanity and incest. Its that last point that got a bit icky for me. With all those elements, the film reminded me a bit in story structure and values like an Italian giallo.
What didn't remind me a giallo is the production values. The house in the film is amazing. That is not an exaggeration to say it is one of the best production pieces I have seen in awhile. I just love the hole in the middle of the house which shows the seasons. Leaves falling through for the fall, then snow for the winter. As the cliche says the house is a character in of itself.
The actors were overall really good with Hiddleston and Chastain being excellent. Chastain really got to chew the scenery the longer the film went on. While I seen many male actors do this, its rare to see a female actor go gloriously crazy. So that was fun. Wasikowska was also good in the main character role but her role mostly reactionary to the others. Hunnam is basically playing the Scatman Crothers role from the Shinning.
Overall I liked the film but it never totally or tonally gelled for me. The parts were good but the whole was lacking. If someone came to me and said they hated the film I wouldn't defend it because I would probably agree with them on many of their points.
I won't recommend it for an outing to the theater but for a rental I've seen far, far worse. Just come with expectations low.
