Traducing the Dead.

Rating: 1/10 (24 January 2019)

This movie is beautifully filmed, except for a few continuity glitches like modern hybrid roses appearing in bunches of flowers. However the script is untrue, unfunny, unbelievable, disconnected and absurd. Rubbish in a word. The syntax and meaning traduces and betrays the truthful, coherent, sophisticated language which was widely spoken in the period, as is evident in the works of contemporary writers such as Swift, Defoe and Alexander Pope. Much of the sound track is unforgiveably unmusical and gimmicky for a score which is supposedly suitable for musical ambiance in the era of Handel and other great composers and librettists of the day. This film, as its idiotic scriptwrters and director have apparently conplained ['...'is not meant to be historically accurate...']. It would be more honest of them to say that the whole concept is a clumsy mixed metaphor, confusing different periods of English cultural history, trivialising important political events and misrepresenting and belittling historical characters. This mixed up confusion is applied in equal measure to the dialogue, with grossly vulgar and gratuitously smutty swearwords and snidely sexist 'witticisms' interlarded with reasonably coherent observations and grating asides such as "I guess that's all right then". Sadly, though the cinematography is beautiful, the script, the dialogue and the action are uniformly unsatisfactory and make this film, almost unwatcheable.... however much the studio's paid hack critics try to rescue it, cheerlead for Oscars etc.
What a pity...but hats off to the cinematography.