Good looking but overlong

Rating: 7/10 (16 October 2006)

This is the only film of Emir Kusturica that I have seen, and his most acclaimed . My first impressions are that Kusturica has an amazing visual sense, is very good at extracting larger than life performances from his actors but does not know the meaning of economical storytelling or narrative progression.
All three central characters in this epic saga of the country once known as Yugoslavia are superb. They have unique, beautiful faces and give truly exuberant performances. Then there is the color and overall cinematic look of the film - really good.
But, the film is overlong where it does not need to be - some sequences drag on forever. This could easily be cut from three to two hours without any vital plot development being lost on the way. The progression from scene to scene - true it spans half a century - is quite choppy. I don't think Underground is going to age at all well with time. Most of the metaphors already feel dated a decade later given the new realities of the Balkans. A more watchable (and very funny) film on the Balkan conflict is the excellent No Man's Land.