Great story, but annoying cinematography

Rating: 8/10 (11 August 2009)

I really love that playing a normal person is finally a novel enough prospect to attract Johnny Depp. I thoroughly enjoyed his performance. The story was well written, moved quickly and kept my interest throughout the film.
My only complaint, (and it's enough that I deducted two points for it in my vote), was the cinematography. I suppose it was an effort to capture the flavor of the early 1930's in which the story takes place, but the camera was shaken so much and so frequently that I actually wound up looking away part of the time because it was too hard to focus and it became unpleasant. This is not a good sign when the whole purpose of watching a movie is exactly that - to WATCH.
Low lighting and a fuzzy camera were also used for the same purpose. These were quite effective in my opinion and didn't bother me at all. They could have - and SHOULD have - stuck to that. Shaking the camera seems to be a disturbingly popular trend in new movies these days. I sure hope they wise up and STOP. In the old days they couldn't help it, but there's no excuse for it now and in my opinion, no use for it either. Fewer extreme close-ups would have been better too.
Otherwise it was a great film and I do sincerely recommend it on your list of movies to watch.