Botchered thriller by Scorsese

Rating: 5/10 (19 August 2013)

I didn't read the book on which the movie is based. From what I've heard it's a great book . This movie is definitively not great . Anyway , the movie had advantage on me with the fact that I didn't knew anything about the story. The basic facts I knew sounded promising and despite that Scorsese in last years haven't been in good shape , I was still hoping for a good movie. It seems that not always you get what you wish for.
The movie doesn't work for few reasons . First of all – Leonardo DiCaprio . I'm sorry , but he just doesn't fit for a guy with troubled past . He doesn't look manly enough . Also , he overacts too much . He shouts and makes a "I have troubled past" face too often . His role required subtlety he just wasn't able to give . William Hurt would be perfect for this type of role.
I don't know was it DiCaprio overacting or Scorsese clumsy direction , but I was able to guess THE BIG TWIST after 40 minutes of the movie . Even if you aren't too clever , you should figure out at least in the half of the movie. If you haven't figure it out till the movie reveals the twist to the audience , it's done in so lame way that my head hurt. The whole revelation feels like Scorsese is explaining the twist to someone retarded. It's annoying and done in terribly amateurish way.
Scorsese directs the movie badly . If I didn't knew that Scorsese was directing this movie , I would thought that it was made by one of those MTV-generation directors , like Bret Rattner. The movie should be dark , scary and emotionally engaging . Yet it comes out as flat , cold and Hollywood type of dark stuff. From what I've heard from the readers of the book they were heartbroken with the ending . Here it comes out emotionally empty . The movie just seems to flow from one scene to another in a soulless way. I was watching it , not experiencing it like I should.
Mark Ruffallo gives a nice performance here , just like Jackie Earle Haley and Max Von Sydow. Ben Kingsley seems to be bored . There is some fine art-direction . The music is annoying. In the end you can follow the second interpretation what really happened . Not that movie is worth re-watch.
I give it 5/10.