The "Hollow" Artist.......Is An Escape Artist

Rating: 6/10 (18 October 2012)

This is entertaining, but its a highly flawed movie. The story is very thin... everyone knows silent actors struggled badly when the "talkies" arrived. The two lead actors...Jean Dujardin and Berenice Bejo...are outstanding. The photography, music, direction are all good. I certainly did not believe that this should have won the Best Picture Academy Award. Its basically a bit of a mess...daring.?? YES brave.?? YES. One either goes hook..line..and sinker for the way Dujardin is left in a "silent world". Or, like me you see this as an clever way to show the audience just how hard the transformation effected some of the biggest stars. It IS quite entertaining...no question about that. Its just that its not in any way...near the mark...about what really happened in early Hollywood, and as it skips along at a fast pace one is aware of the hollow nature of the story.