Certain Expectations

Rating: 8/10 (8 April 2014)

After hearing so much about Casablanca and about how great of a film it was for it's day, I have finally been able to watch it. For a long time it has been on my Movies To Watch list but I've just never had the opportunity or just never got around to it until now, and honestly though it was a good movie, I guess I was expecting more. When you hear about how great a movie is, you have high expectations and you expect those to be met, sadly, this film didn't meet those expectations. The film is a well shot film and the lighting is remarkable how it singles out characters or makes their face look just so, but the story is not necessarily what I expected. I fully expected a sappy romantic movie that you couldn't help but like because the characters were so genuinely in love. Definitely not a man who owns a saloon and is secretly pinning away for a girl that left him at a train station who then pops back into his life very much unannounced and undesired, especially because she is with another man. The story itself is not all bad, don't get me wrong, just not what I was expecting. Though the hero did not end like I would have wanted him to because of his selflessness, he does have a happy ending to a certain degree, and he certainly isn't all that alone in the end. Despite my expectations for the film, it is a rather good film and I would probably watch it again.