Tuesday, January 5, 2016

2015 - IN REVIEW: BIGGEST DISAPPOINTMENT



KNIGHT OF CUPS

Rarely is my choice for “Biggest Disappointment” of any year, a bad film. It is usually a film that for whatever reason has failed to live up to my expectations of it. Rightly or wrongly, we come at every film with some sort of expectation, and these expectations have the ability to colour our movie experience when watching these films. Obviously if you are not expecting much from a film, and you end up really enjoying it, you tend to rate the film higher than if you were actually expecting more from it. It goes without saying that the opposite is also true, which is why “Knight of Cups” is my biggest disappointment of 2015.

I have mentioned before in other reviews that whenever Terrence Malick releases a new film, it is more of an event for me. He is a rare kind of filmmaker who just sees the world in a different way from everyone else, and because of this his films are so unique compared to the norm. Even after his previous film, “To The Wonder” left me cold (a film I am still drawn back to constantly, none-the-less), my expectations for “Knight of Cups” were still at a high and it was one of my six most anticipated films of this year. Out of those six, only four managed to end up being released in 2015, and Malick's film was the one that disappointed me the most. More so than “To The Wonder” before it, “Knight of Cups” sadly left me feeling nothing, except frustration. My big problem with the film is that the main character Rick, played by Christian Bale, is someone we never get to know even though he is on screen the entire time. He walks around L.A constantly looking for something to ignite him back to the living, because where he is in his life at the moment is a place where he finds himself existing rather than participating in life. He moves from one pointless party to the next, collecting a list of lovers that are all interchangeable because he makes no real connection with them all. Although we are forever privy to his thoughts, thanks to Malick's trademark use of voice over, Rick barely speaks throughout the film and what he is thinking comes across more as a representation of a stream of consciousness, rather than anything of any substance. Personally, when I think, I never sprout the kind of bizarre meaningless thoughts Rick does. Because of this, Rick appears to be walking around in a state of confusion which appears to mirror the actor who is playing him. Bale looks bemused throughout the whole of “Knight of Cups” and totally unsure of himself or what his character is going through. It is such a strange role for the actor because he never gets a chance to actually emote or grow. Strangely the few scenes where we see his character obviously frustrated by his father, are muted and we never get to watch Bale “act”, instead we get more of the same inane voice-over. Speaking of the voice-overs, this is another aspect of the film where I think it falls flat. Personally I believe that Terrence Malick is the best person I have seen at using this technique and previously it has enhance his films, but here it exposes a complete lack of focus or understanding of the story he wants to tell, as we get to hear the inner thoughts of many characters, even pointless ones who have no bearing on the bigger whole.

In terms of acting, I feel the girls all come out stronger than Bale, but that is due to the fact that Malick actually gives them their moments to emote and create something of a character. The scenes with Cate Blanchett and Natalie Portman are the highlights of the film because through them we get our only insight into who Rick may actually be. However these moments are short lived. Frustration was continually built when even the gorgeous “floating camera” images created by Emmanuel Lubezki seemed to have a negative effect on me here. I am not going to sit here and say that “Knight of Cups” is not a visually beautiful film, because I would be lying, but the constant moving of the camera, for some reason, drove me insane whilst watching this. I'm not sure if it was due to my frustrations as a whole in regards to this film building up, but for the first time in a Malick picture, I was not bowled over by its beauty.

It has gotten to the point where I think it is time for Terrence Malick to make another picture that is narrative based because this style of filmmaking, which he created with the exquisite “Tree of Life”, has now become stale and lacks the punch it once had. It has now been two months since I have seen “Knight of Cups” and sadly I have had no inkling to even want to revisit it, which is not the norm for me and the cinema of Terrence Malick, but what I think is an indictment on this film. As you may be able to tell, “Knight of Cups” was a massive disappointment for me. Click here to read my original review of the film.

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