From the title, the tag-line, the plot summary on the DVD etc..., I expected something at least slightly epic, with the historical fiction and the romance concurring to thrill you; that's what they did in Last of the Mohicans for example, and I think they did a superb job. Maybe I had standards too high for this movie and didn't give it a fair chance. But the scenery was barely OK (how could they not come up with something more beautiful when they have such landscapes to work with?), the two lovers had no chemistry whatsoever, and the plot was just so predictable it felt like it had been drafted in 5 minutes by a twelve-year-old -- and not a very imaginative one. Nouvelle-France is a love story set in an eventful historical age. But the history of Nouvelle-France is hardly a side note, and the love story is banal and fails dramatically to make the viewer care for the lovers' fate. Surprisingly, the only good parts about the movie came from something completely unexpected and unadvertised: the relationship between Marie-Loup, the heroine, and her children (one natural, one adopted). If only they'd concentrated on her family and forgotten about the love story, it would have been a much better movie. Marie-Loup's parents should have been given more screen time and character development, the politics going on in Britain should have been more than a three-minute scene with barely any connection to the rest, the rotten baddie should have been either more developed or removed from the script completely (why hire actors like Vincent Perez, Tim Roth or Jason Isaacs to misuse them so badly?) Bad work overall.
Reviews
2 Reviews
24
(2001–2010)
trust issues anyone?
8 July 2006
Warning: Spoilers
Remember those old Agatha Christie novels, in which pretty much anyone and everyone could be guilty until you hit the ten final pages? That's how 24 feels, except here it's not about somebody who's been murdered, it's about everyone likely to be dead 24 hours later (especially in the second season). Pace is fantastic, you're always kept one step behind the screenwriter who takes you from one surprise to another. Forget credibility and realism (especially as far as Bauer's daughter is concerned: how could anyone get into so much trouble???), this is just action-packed, with a twist of "everyone's likely to be a terrorist in disguise". As soon as you come to grips with that, the series loses its interest. If your mind is twisted enough so as not to trust anyone, then you may think it's just far-fetched and so damn unlikely. But even I with my pervert fictional schemes and well-honed skills at guessing any plot's newt turn, after years and years of TV watching, got caught off-balance by this series. Many of us have seen so much fiction on TV and in cinema that we think it's highly unlikely we'll ever be caught off guard by a script. Just watch 24 hours of Jack Bauer against the world...
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