Ingenious but Lightweight

Rating: 8/10 (19 September 2012)

So, let's make a silent movie. We have all the state-of-the-art stuff that allows us to fall back on something that disappeared around 1929. It disappeared because Jolson talked and others couldn't and we were on our way to what we have now. The limitations of cinematography created in silents demands that were hard to overcome at times, but through genius, the likes of Griffith and Murnau were able to trump those with varying degrees of success. Some of the best of these were silly comedies and, hence, that's what we have here. What we've asked it what the actors of the new sound era were asked, except in reverse. This is hardly a true silent movie. Because of the huge budget and the ability use techniques that are tried and true, it comes off slick as a whistle. I really enjoyed this but let's face it, not only as the technology passed, so has the era that spawned it. So by making this a period piece, I can only respond ho-hum. I think this is a creative piece with nice acting and some cool plot twists (though a little too much pride for my tastes), but I feel that the other Best Picture nominees should be suing.