A slow, obscure story done very well

Rating: 6/10 (25 October 2006)

After all the critical brouhaha, I found this film a snore. Ponderous. Glad I saw a screening and didn't have to pay for it.
I started out wanting to like this film. It's visually beautiful - great art direction and visual effects, but the pace is much too stately and the major plot lines are too purposely obscure. There is a sense of obsession and an undercurrent of evil, but it's so well hidden you aren't scared, or very interested.
While Bale, Caine, Jackman, Johansson, et al gave credible performances, we don't care about the characters enough to attempt to wind the confusing threads of plot into a story we care about. I found the ending "Yeah, and?..."
Compare and contrast this with 1967's "Eye of The Devil" with David Niven, Deborah Kerr, Sharon Tate, et al. While some think this film somewhat slow and muddled, the viewer cares about Catherine's fear and suspicion of the ominous conspiracy surrounding her, her husband, and children, yet she never stops loving Phillipe. You sense Phillipe's love for her and because of this, his ambivalence about accepting his approaching fate, which Catherine discovers, to her horror. And despite her best efforts to protect the children after Phillipe is sacrificed, we see at the end that their young son secretly accepts his gruesome legacy.
Wish it had been better.
/DJ