What an interesting film this is. I deliberately catch up with big movies and books years after release so it was the first time I'd seen it. I think a delay helps balance the gadgets and gimmicks better with the more subtle themes, and this seems like a film to benefit.
On the whole I enjoyed it. In terms of inspiration it's got lots to take away. The concept and accumulation of detail are impressive, exactly as we'd expect, although for me it's not as profound as it seems to want us to think it is and there's plenty that doesn't work, is too loose, oddly tired or silly, and all the obvious laughs felt somehow out of place.
It does still manage to surprise though, on many levels, and there's a feeling of a natural development despite the railroading, with plenty of observations to make and layers to peel back. I'm still thinking about the construction, the relationships of the characters, the painful ambiguity, especially of the ending, and the very human, honest approach.
Appropriately, given the water theme, it's the immersion in the world that really grabbed me, though more the subjective world or worlds of the central figures than what I saw as a rather uneven near future setting. It also has one of the best shots I can remember in a blockbuster, downstairs at the hotel, 10 to 15 perfectly realised seconds of cinema.
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6 comments:
I think its a great film, I just like the idea of the world going off in that strange tangent. Samantha Morton is great in it, quite a lot of people don't like Mr Cruise, he's made a few boo boos recently, but this is a good film imo.
It was a very good concept, well produced and acted and a little look into our future maybe?
The thing about Cruise is I often forget it's him in the role, which is a good start of course. He was the best I've seen him in Born on the Fourth of July.
I watched MR expecting it to be heavily about a particular view of the future. I had the feeling that when it was released it was pushed as a warning of the way things were moving, not surprisingly given the mood of the time. It is a warning of course, but one that's very well presented. I'd guess on balance it did more to raise awareness of the problems than to push us into a belief anything is inevitable, and that's a hope. We may be much further along the path now, but that awareness is higher and still growing.
I should point out, that almost everyone misses the most interesting part of the movie the first time they watch it.
It ends when he is captured and put in stasis. The rest of the film is simply his dream - it doesn't actually happen, he only imagines it does.
It's ambiguous I think, but I like the fact it can be read that way. It reminds me of Lynch's Lost Highway, but in MR's case our knowing it could be imagined really sharpens up the rest of the film, its particular themes.
A great movie and one of Cruise's best - though everyone in it does well.
A much better story than the book IMO.
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