An average movie

To be honest, I wasn’t sure what to expect from this movie but since it was starring Colin Firth, I thought I might as well check it out. In fact, the title did sound familiar and it’s because it’s from a famous book which has been adapted many times for the silver screen. Well, surprisingly, it was actually the first version I saw of this story but, apparently, I did end up watching the least heralded version released so far, I’m afraid. Sure, it was visually quite appealing and Dixie Egerickx (what a cool name, by the way) did deliver a solid performance, even if she wasn’t given enough to do which was too bad because her character was actually quite complex. Indeed, just during the first 10 mins, she went through so much and, yet, this little girl seemed rather unfazed, even after all what happened to her which seemed rather bewildering. However, I won’t blame Egerickx, she did what she could with what she was provided. Eventually, the biggest issue was with the tone as they tried to deliver a whimsical children tale when the material was actually much darker than that. Indeed, the story was dealing with massive trauma and loss but, instead of really developing these complex issues they constantly tried to smooth the edges and the end-result was therefore really flat. Concerning Colin Firth, eventually, he wasn’t given much to do in this movie after all but it wasn’t a big deal. Eventually, I wonder what Agnieszka Holland managed to do with her version of this story since it was much better received. Anyway, to conclude, even though the damned thing was rather harmless, as far as I was concerned, it was also quite boring and I don’t think it is really worth a look. 

5/10