| I finally caught all the Oscar nominated films, this one being the last. It's superb in nearly all areas, but the flaws in storytelling bothered me too much whilst I watched. I had to ask myself a couple of times, "Who's story is this?" Is it Robbie's or is it Briony's? Well, that got sorted out at the end, but I didn't like having that question pop into my mind whilst watching it. Because I got to know very little about who Cecelia is, I didn't care one way or another about her. That shallow characterization led to a rather shallow romance. I longed to learn more about Briony; she seemed to have lots of potential for rich characterization. From what I've read here, she has in the book, but I didn't see it translated very much on screen. I feel I should feel something about her after the film, but I really don't. James McAvoy did a superb job with Robbie, the one character we get to know well, so I cared deeply about him. So I found the movie disappointing. It's gorgeous to look at, well-directed, has a great score, brilliantly edited, performed, etc., but all of that doesn't matter if the film fails to make me care as much as it wants me to about one or two of the key characters. Especially, for me, a romance, since I generally don't like that genre. This romance is too tepid. 7/10 |