6.5
Okay, first, here is what I liked:
What did not work for me:
Moreover, when you don't have a lot of dialog, it is clear that you are going to need to express the character's feelings (and there are plenty of feelings to express) primarily through facial expressions and body language. Winslet did a fine job of this. Schoenaerts, though, seemed disconnected from the story, quite wooden, and I saw very little real passion toward Sabine. What a shame. A better actor could have really elevated this movie.
-Finally, the dialog sometimes seemed a bit self-important, like it took itself a little too seriously. Alan Rickman's self-indulgence with the dialog had me rolling my eyes at one point. But I still love him as an actor. :-)
Okay, first, here is what I liked:
- Costumes, sets, and cinematography that kept me watching the full two hours
- Kate Winslet's acting
- Alan Rickman's diction
What did not work for me:
- Sketchy, slight story for 2 hours. If you look at the actual plot points, it seems that the movie could have been shorter (which would have been good, because it dragged in places).
- The wooden acting of Matthias Schoenaerts. God knows he did not have much dialog to work with, and what he did have was delivered in somewhat of an English-is-not-my-first-language way. In other words, I found the delivery/interpretation to be lacking.
Moreover, when you don't have a lot of dialog, it is clear that you are going to need to express the character's feelings (and there are plenty of feelings to express) primarily through facial expressions and body language. Winslet did a fine job of this. Schoenaerts, though, seemed disconnected from the story, quite wooden, and I saw very little real passion toward Sabine. What a shame. A better actor could have really elevated this movie.
-Finally, the dialog sometimes seemed a bit self-important, like it took itself a little too seriously. Alan Rickman's self-indulgence with the dialog had me rolling my eyes at one point. But I still love him as an actor. :-)