zilla
Post: 282
Join Date: Sep 2012
just got back. fuckin pissed. spoilers
so i'm not pissed exactly that gosling isn't in a lot of the film. but the whole conflict of the film rests on the nonsensical decision eva mendes' character makes when she decides to not tell the father of her child that she is having his baby because it was a one-night stand, but shacks up with some guy to raise his child, lets her mother tell him (gosling) and then acts like he's pestering her to even wanna be around his son? the most anyone acknowledges how callous and inhumane and stupid this is is gosling seeming kinda irked that she's not taking it seriously, how badly she has fucked up the boy's life and his life by denying him even the right to father his child. (she insists he can't make money but doesn't know him or give him a chance.)
so when the film takes a turn, and i kinda saw it coming because of people hinting at how epic the story was, i was on board because maybe the focus would go elsewhere and would be better executed. but then it goes on for like 5 more hours and it becomes very clear what the film wants to do but it hasn't earned any of it. the bon iver song at the end was nice, the cinematography (all the long tracking shots of people's backs was cool), the music from there will be blood just after hw loses his hearing was annoying because i like that film a lot, but it never came together for me.
fuck. i just saw children of men a day ago so my standards might be kinda high, but i feel like this has similar problems to blue valentine. the characters are themes (which can work, like in drive), but when the themes are this complicated, it pays to have deeper characters than what we get. dane dehaan is great and i love how much work he's been getting since chronicle.
but yeah, i could feel the whole audience get restless after the film shifts and doesn't improve.
