narrative symphony

Rating: 9/10 (7 July 2009)

I'm glad that this and not "The Dark Knight" is considered the greatest movie of all time. TDK lost that battle if nothing else. And I love how you literally just cant stop watching this film once it begins, despite the fact that it offers the viewer no challenge whatsoever. The artistry here is not in the tale itself, but in the telling of the tale. Its a hope-in-the-face-of-tragedy fable, with a miraculous twist that turns the whole thing on its head. You are not meant to ask too many questions, else the whole thing falls apart.
The key to this film is the editing and the photography. The filmmakers have used the simplest possible visuals to frame the story. Two giants in the film profession lent their enormous talent to this production : editor Richard Francis-Bruce & cinematographer Roger Deakins. About 99.99 % of films rely on heavy-handed editing and camera gimmicks to tell the story, and ironically they fail. In this film you just don't perceive the role of the editor or the cinematographer, despite their continual presence. Watch how the narration, images and score are welded together in a flawless lock-step precision. There isn't a single false moment or an out-of-place/unnecessary scene; the vignettes are masterfully assembled into a seamless whole.
I'm afraid I cant give this film a 10/10 because it isn't better than dozens of other films that I've seen. In this world, events occur as the story needs them, not as they might in the real world. This is done so extraordinarily well that a passive viewer will NOT notice the tricks involved. And so it gives me almost nothing non-filmic to think about. But watch this film for its narrative mastery.