dumbed down version of a potentially epic movie - no way an Oscar winner

Rating: 4/10 (21 January 2008)

The fundamental problem with the film was the way it dumbed down the story. Eg, we are shown scenes twice to show that two different people have seen what happened, when there is no difference between the scenes. It is almost like the director does not trust the viewer to be intelligent enough to know what is going on and so has to spoon feed you each point.
Certain elements of the plot - in fact the key motif of the film, are massively over-laboured and repeated again and again, like some kind of advertising campaign. In fact parts of the film felt like a perfume ad.
Other large segments of the film are pointless and lend nothing to the plot, drama or tension. In effect, the story is a one-trick pony, but is elongated and complicated to make a longer film. But then to make up for this failure the director/editors have overly expanded dead scenes and repeated obvious dramatic points. To me this is a failed attempt to recreate the drama of The English Patient. But it does not work, unless perhaps the audience is so used to ads they like this kind of film-making.