I had high hopes for this movie, especially given the glowing review by a previous reviewer, and perhaps I went into it with my expectations too high because of that.
My impression as I watched was that it had beautiful scenery, terrific sets, locations, props and actors. Visually, it was quite fantastic in an eye-candy sort of way. I thought the camera work and lighting were quite nicely done.
But the acting, to me, was not beautiful at all. From my point of view, it was quite stilted, stiff, dialogue delivered as if read from cue cards by students of over-clear enunciation school. It just didn't come off as natural to me, and kept me from immersing myself in the story, unfortunately.
When one actor's work in a film comes off as unconvincing or amateurish, I put the blame on that actor. But when it's a problem with all or nearly all of the actors in a film, I put the blame on the director, and that's the case here.
The story itself was mediocre, standard-fare good-cop-surrounded-by-bad- elements stuff, with no real surprises or notable twists to speak of, unless you're very new to the genre, which I'm not.
In the end, it's nothing I'd care to see again and, knowing what I know now, had I missed it, that would have been okay too.
My impression as I watched was that it had beautiful scenery, terrific sets, locations, props and actors. Visually, it was quite fantastic in an eye-candy sort of way. I thought the camera work and lighting were quite nicely done.
But the acting, to me, was not beautiful at all. From my point of view, it was quite stilted, stiff, dialogue delivered as if read from cue cards by students of over-clear enunciation school. It just didn't come off as natural to me, and kept me from immersing myself in the story, unfortunately.
When one actor's work in a film comes off as unconvincing or amateurish, I put the blame on that actor. But when it's a problem with all or nearly all of the actors in a film, I put the blame on the director, and that's the case here.
The story itself was mediocre, standard-fare good-cop-surrounded-by-bad- elements stuff, with no real surprises or notable twists to speak of, unless you're very new to the genre, which I'm not.
In the end, it's nothing I'd care to see again and, knowing what I know now, had I missed it, that would have been okay too.