not nearly as good as i'd hoped

Rating: 5/10 (24 August 2006)

As movies go, it's better than average. The look and feel of the film do an excellent job of transporting the viewer to early 20th century Vienna. The acting is pretty good from all members of the cast. But about halfway through the film, the charm starts to fade, the plot becomes apparent, and the pacing slows to a deathly crawl.
The production value is great. At no point in the film did I feel I wasn't in Vienna in the early 1900s. The color palate of much of the film is a few shades shy of sepia, coupled with soft lighting that, to me, felt a lot like "Somewhere In Time." But it's never overdone.
The acting was good. Norton's accent seemed to fade in and out at times. Giamatti, as always, delivers. Biel surprised me; her accent was consistent and her performance sincere. Though their individual performances were good, there was zero chemistry between Biel and Norton; part of it was the script. For cryin' out loud, how romantic is it that she doesn't recognize him when they're reunited?! Anyway. Sewell plays his role of pompous villain to perfection, but that is no surprise at all; he has great presence and talent. I would just like him to get more roles as a protagonist.
The plot and pace are what killed the movie for me. In the first half it's fine, and necessary to really develop your characters and get the audience to invest in them. But by the time the murder occurs, the pacing hasn't changed at all. We KNOW Giamatti, though ordered to shut Norton down, is a good guy that wants to do the right thing; we KNOW that Norton is talented and ballsy; we KNOW that they are in love; but at the point the film should kick things up a notch. Instead, the audience is treated to a full forty-five minutes of an excruciatingly slow re-hashing of these character and plot points.
The plot itself was pretty transparent. When the camera VERY suddenly switches its POV from Biel's and Sewell's characters to some random butler's line of sight just before the murder, which is never actually shown, it's waaaaaaaaaayyy too obvious that some elaborate plan is in effect. Once you realize that, the rest of the film becomes a potpourri of transparencies. The doctor appears and disappears too suddenly for him to not be a cohort of some kind, reinforced by his insistence that Giamatti leave the body alone; the doctor handily produces a gem that could only be from the prince's jewel-encrusted sword; Biel's body is found in the river, and I'm sorry, but there's no way she could be dead, or Norton's character would be the biggest schmuck ever. I just couldn't buy the second half. And I really hate being the Monday morning QB, but I even saw the ending coming, a la "Usual Suspects." Except the final montage of realization here was a series of disjointed images intercut with Giamatti's visage contorting into some goofy grin. Part of why it didn't work is that many of those "ooooohh, THAT's what he was talking about" moments were taken from private exchanges between Norton and Biel, that Giamatti wouldn't be privy to. And, lastly, if Giamatti were to take another moment, he'd realize that Norton completely used him and basically framed an innocent man, while causing him to commit suicide. Granted, that man is an arrogant, power-hungry and abusive jerk, but ultimately he is innocent. Would the good guys kill for true love? What would Wesley and Buttercup say?