Product: Head in the Clouds (2004)
Rating: 5.0
An epic period piece propelled by good acting that I really enjoyed.
It's kind of interesting. I remember when "The English Patient" came out it won a ton of awards and everyone loved it. It certainly had some of the problems that people claim this movie had - bombastic, over-the-top, melodramatic, with plenty of over-acting (Ralph Fiennes, as good as he is, is often guilty of that in spades). Yet that movie receives a lot of praise (it had a higher budget, but still) and this movie gets negative reviews.I really liked this movie. Not because it seeks to reorder our preconceived notions of cinematic narrative, or any such lofty, ambitious, goal, but because it's a throwback to the old days of larger-than-life, chewy 1940s escapist epics.Which is not to say it's the period piece equivalent of "Dude, Where's My Car?" The movie does have subtlety, very good acting, well-written characters, some beautiful shots and camera work (I'm not talking about outside Gilda's Paris apartment either), and some good messages. It also has all the requisites of a good epic to - a large, sweeping feel; love, loss, and death; great locations and scenery, grandoise, dramatic events in world history contrasted with changes in the lives of individuals, and so on.It totally succeeds on its merits. It's not trying to win an Oscar, it's meant to be an entertaining World War 2 epic, and for me, it most certainly is. For me, the strength of this movie is the acting by the three leads and the sharply written characters. I really liked this characters and cared about what happened to them, and thought Townsend, Cruz, and Theron did a great job making me care about them. Cruz and her character were particularly irresistible. Townsend's acting isn't inferior, he's simply given less to work with. Theron brings more humanity and makes a somewhat stock character (the libertine socialite in these type of movies is a fixture) less irritating than usual and gives her more twists.This movie is full of nice little touches. For example, when Cruz's character Mia is working as a nurse on the battle front in Spain, her face appears to be marked by a rash. Realistic for the time in unsanitary and exhausting conditions, and quite a contrast to the unrealistically glamorously made-up Nicole Kidman in the Civil War era movie Cold Mountain (she looks like she just stepped off a fashion runway).In conclusion, if you like period piece epics, this is definitely one to see.