9 Oscars?!

Rating: 5/10 (20 September 2005)

This film is very much like the Aviator. Not much explanation and not much else really. It is probably one of the slowest films you'll ever watch. You'll keep checking what the time is as you're going through it. It's a film almost completely devoid of entertainment, which should have been replaced with emotion (the sort you get a la Sean Penn), but alas not. What you get instead is a film which has a few moments of inspiration, but then descends back into the dusty hands of the scenic settings. A couple of the characters are likable, which is one of the good things that hold the whole thing together. However, our main couple - the Count and (flip, I can't remember her name) the American woman - are not at all likable. They come across as being shallow, vindictive little creatures and this would all be fine and dandy, but there's no reason to support why these people are like this. Much of their intimate acting is seriously hammed up and some moments are unintentionally laughable. The real heroes are Kip and Hana, though the scene in the church is a bit of pure cheese. They make a sweet couple and its reasonably saddening when they have to say goodbye. Juliette Binoche and Naveen Andrews should have got the congrats at the Oscars, but alas the Oscars has been a sham for many years (two words: Johnny Depp). The film also shows that Binoche should be the holder of the Fighting With Inanimate Objects award.