An average movie

Since this movie had been really poorly received when it was released, I didn’t expect much but since there was a nice cast involved, I thought I might as well check it out anyway. Well, at least, you have to give Akiva Goldsman some credit to tackle something so ambitious (Apparently, Martin Scorsese backed out because he thought the book was actually unfilmable). Unfortunately, it was probably too much to handle for him, especially since it was his directorial debut. Basically, it was some kind of romantic fairy-tale but, while it was obviously supposed to be whimsical and charming, it turned out to be actually really cheesy, rather silly, borderline offensive but, above all, really tedious. For example, was it really a smart move to have the only prominent black character play Lucifer? Then, there is a fair chance that this movie must sting like a b*tch for all the parents who have lost a young child to cancer. Concerning the cast, Goldsman had been working in Hollywood for 25 years so he managed to gather many interesting actors among his friends and previous associates but they clearly struggled with the rather weak material. Indeed, Colin Farrell did his best to look dreamy but he was hardly convincing. Russell Crowe was probably the worst of the bunch as he gave a seriously hammy performance. William Hurt had only a couple of scenes and barely left an impression. Jennifer Connelly seemed completely lost playing another really thankless role. At least, Will Smith was not bad but he had the advantage of playing only in 2 scenes moderating the damage in the process. What was left was the charming Jessica Brown Findlay who was the only one who managed to find the perfect tone but I’m afraid this critical flop pretty much derailed an otherwise really promising career. Anyway, the biggest issue was with the story though. Seriously, the whole thing never worked but, above all, it was never entertaining whatsoever. To conclude, the damned thing was just really weak and I don’t think it is really worth a look.