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Starring Anthony Hopkins, Jude Law, Rachel Weisz, Ben Foster
Directed by Fernando Meirelles
Having earned acclaim for his handling of icons in The Queen and Frost/Nixon, screenwriter Peter Morgan looks to get a little dirt under his nails by tackling the travails of slightly more common people in this latest adaptation of Arthur Schnitzlers play Reigen.
Sadly, whereas Schnitzlers original work caused a considerable stir upon its debut, this Fernando Meirelles-helmed effort will leave most viewers unmoved.
Of course, this is somewhat ironic given that the films characters are almost constantly in motion.
After a botched rendezvous with a Slovakian prostitute (Lucia Siposova), a guilt-ridden London businessman (Jude Law) jets home to his wife (Rachel Weisz). In turn, her extramarital affair results in her lovers girlfriend (Maria Flor) fleeing to her Brazilian home. Kibitzing with a kindly gentleman (Anthony Hopkins) in the air, she hooks up with a just-released sex offender (Ben Foster) during a Denver layover. The inclusion of another half-dozen players allows the film to wind back to its starting point, cuing someone to risibly declare, Weve come full circle.
Such on-the-nose declarations run rampant in a film thats all-too-eager to flaunt its rigid structure and precision story mechanics.
Such calculated filmmaking results in characters that are nothing more than cogs.
Ideally, an ensemble film should present you with fleeting glimpses of fully-developed individuals.
Conversely, Morgans characters are designed for the sole purpose of impacting a single scene. The story is then shuttled along to its next station, where another set of carefully-calibrated parts can make their impression on it.
Ultimately, Conveyor Belt mightve been a more fitting name for this dispassionate exercise.
