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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