Reviews

So I need to preface this review with the warning that I had not read the book before I saw the film. My dad is a big fan of Ron Howard and we have been getting through a lot of his films and he has read the book so he was looking forward to watching it. I found the first hour a bit of a slog to get into. The chemistry between Tom Hanks and Audrey Tautou wasn't cutting it for me and I was just kind of confused at what was going on! Then Ian Mckellen's character arrived and massively lifted the film up and that's where I feel the story was really explained and he was very charismatic and i liked the theory that was expressed about 'The Davinci Code'. Without giving anything away, the last 30 minutes both felt rushed and dull at the same time so it was strange! I'm not going as far as to say I didn't enjoy the film as I did but I can certainly understand the criticism of it!

I feel like this film is one of those films that is naturally going to split opinions and that's kind of the point of the film. They'll be those who watch it who find it a bit creepy and misogynistic and those who will say you entirely missed the point of the film as that's exactly what it's questioning. I just found it just a bit up itself! It was well performed and stylistic but all in all it just wasn't a film for me but I can say I've seen it. I hadn't realised that it was the same team as behind The Favourite which I didn't see as those in my circle who had seen it really didn't like it. I feel that if it's anything like this film then I expect I'd feel the same way.

I really enjoyed this film. What I love about Oscar season is that I'm encouraged to watch films I normally wouldn't go to (yes I know, I'm one of those people). I think the thing I most enjoyed about this film was the purely naturalistic feel to it. Some may call this mundane but life isn't always like a romance novel. Who can really say they didn't have a connection with someone from their past that they wished they had the option to explore. Things happen in our lives and the natural reaction to that is to wonder what could have been and I love how this film shows these characters exploring that and wanting to hold on to something in their past but also acknowledging that life goes on and you can't always live that fairy tale! How it was shot was also beautiful and I really like what the cinematography team did. This is very much a worthy best film nominee!

My dad has discovered that he's quite a fan of Ron Howard films after Apollo 13 being one of his favourite films and then us watching Thirteen Lives last week so he fancied watching this. We shoved it on and I have to say I didn't know much about this interview prior to this but was aware of its significance. I think the performances were all very good here. The chemistry between Michael Sheen and Matthew Macfayden was strong. Clearly they enjoyed working together as they recently were seen again in Quiz. Sam Rockwell is one of my favourite actors but I did find this film a little slow. I imagine it works better as a play where they can condense the filler and focus on the infamous interview but I felt the conclusion was satisfactory.