The Emperor's New Clothes

Rating: Null/10 (4 June 2007)

Much has been said already so I shall be brief. This film made me immensely sad - which, in a way, was a good thing because it was all that prevented me from falling asleep with probably the severest attack of boredom I have experienced whilst watching a film. I was sad at the thought of a magnificent cast being so wasted, and because this subcontinental director of undoubted talent who could produce films like "The Sixth Sense", which I never tire of seeing again and again, and the lesser masterpiece, "Unbreakable" should turn out such pretentious rubbish as this and "Signs" (whose star also has the irritating tendency of taking himself too seriously).
The film is a fine example of the "Emperor's New Clothes" of the H.C.Andersen story. Self-styled intellectuals patiently enduring the pedestrian unfolding of the plot at somewhat less than the speed of a Japanese tea ceremony, can see all manner of portentous and significant things invisible to more modest eyes like my own. It is as when a talented and competent painter finds he can get ahead better by squeezing a tube of Chinese white on a plain dark blue canvas instead of sticking to his original technically and inspirationally demanding style appreciated by the man-in-the-street. Though this strategy, if strategy it be, appears ,quite deservedly, not to have been a commercial success for Shamalyan.
I was especially sorry for the wonderful Adrien Brody, perhaps even sorrier than when he was being brutalized by the Nazis (except for one nice officer) in Polanski's "The Pianist". But, in a way, this actor disclaimed any responsibility for this fiasco by playing the village idiot! However, I should imagine that most if not all of the cast secretly wish they had never had anything to do with it.
I give the thing 3/10 stars: one out of respect for the misused cast and the talented but ill-advised director; one for the highly competent technical side of the production; and one for the music which was nominated for an award and, as befits a good soundtrack,does not impinge upon the consciousness of the viewer even when he is dozing off.