This movie is based off a book (gasp! how original!) by Emile Zola entitled "Therese Raquin". It's a movie about how being sexually deprived and marrying your cousin can lead to murder. Hmmmm....maybe it's a good thing most students at my university keep hooking up.
So here are my thoughts, spoiler free first:
I thought it was an okay movie. It wasn't a bad movie that made me regret spending all those dollars off my uncle's Christmas gift-card, but it didn't make me leave the cinema a changed woman either. All you get from the story is something we all already know, don't marry your cousin, don't have an affair, and murder is bad.
That being said, I did like some elements of the movie.
1) Draco Malfoy was the sweetest of the bunch.
Tom Felton is such a sweet heart in interviews and here he finally got to play a character closer to his own personality, which was a breath of fresh air. However, if you're expecting some form of eye-candy from Mr.Felton, you're probably not going to get it (unless you're into the balding Loki hairstyle).
Here's your eye-candy. I really like Oscar Isaac as an actor. If you haven't seen Inside Llewyn Davis, I highly recommend it. He's got a goofy hair cut to match the time period of the story but he still looked good and acted well (hello good British accent). Oh and a bonus....you get to see his butt (buns of steel). Never underestimate the power of hormones when it comes to liking a movie.
3) The women
Elizabeth Olsen and Jessica Lange were solid in their roles as Therese and Madam Raquin. Jessica Lange is a pretty established actress (her academy awards sure thinks so) and Elizabeth Olsen has promising talent. If Lizzie here chooses better movie scripts, she could make it big.
4) There was a cat
I've got two kitties of my own and I get excited when I see cats or any other animal in movies. I don't know if you've ever seen this as an aspect of what makes a good movie in other reviews, but it matters to me. For those of you who are like me and care about the safety of the animals more than the human characters, don't worry, the cat survives (I wouldn't classify this as a spoiler but let me know in the comments if you like your animal survivals to be unspoiled by me).
5) The tone of the movie
The movie had this over-laying dark and sinister tone to it throughout. The music always let you in on what was going to happen. I know some people don't particularly like this element in movies but I love my music, script, and lighting to coincide. It would have been weird if the Polka started playing while Elizabeth Olsen and Oscar Isaac were getting jiggy with it or if the bright setting of Mr.Sunshine was prevalent on screen while incest, affairs, and murder are playing out.
6) The mini Harry Potter reunion between Draco Malfoy and Moaning Myrtle
I'm such a Potterhead. Nuff said.
7) The movie was very artistic
I felt like the action was taking place is an old painting. It was dark but still pretty. Kudos to you cinematographer. If love paintings, you'll appreciate the environment in the movie.
Here are some of the reasons the movie came undone:
1) The instant hook-up
I love character development. I like going on a journey with them be it physically or emotionally. From the trailers, you know that Therese and Laurent (Oscar Isaac's character) are going to have an affair. It would have been nice to have seen some form of growing passion between the two characters. Instead what we got was "Unbutton your blouse" and BAM it's sexy time. What the actual fuck? You don't just drop your panties the moment a guy says "hey babe let's bang", especially not if you're ALREADY married!!! I just didn't buy it. It was too abrupt and too lazy. If your characters are going to have an affair, you need to justify why they are going through with it. I get it, sex is awesome, but that's not a good enough reason Mr.Screenplay/Mr.Director (they were the same person...Charlie Stratton). I'm sure the book had more character development.
2) The ending
If I had read the book, I would have enjoyed the ending more. Again, it was abrupt and lazy. Yeah we are crazy now after killing Malfoy, let's go kill ourselves....The end. There wasn't enough momentum leading up to that moment. Again, it might have translated differently than the book. I didn't care when they died, I was just happy nothing happened to the cat. If the director had put in as much effort as he did into Therese and Laurent slowly descending into loonyville, then the movie would have been more satisfactory.
If you like the actors, watch the movie but if you care about plot-lines and direction, I wouldn't recommend it (aka 3/5 stars)
Hope you had a reel good time
-Vidya