Login
You can consider everything here a spoiler. Most isn´t but if you read this before you watch it you´ll may regret it. You are advised.
Now the review:
Storytelling is an art that shouldn't be forgotten, it's more than just scripting some dialogue and action shots. A movie like this is full of tricks but they all feel great and work better and that's really difficult. The secret is in the really slow tension building and the magnificent acting.
You can watch this movie as a believer, a disbeliever or a kid. The first will be watching a fantasy prophecy complex movie, the second will be watching a bigger than life psychodrama, the last one will be just enjoying everything that happens in the screen as it comes. Everyone will feel great in the end: goosebumps and stupid smiles guaranteed.
To get everybody thrilled. That's not easy. This is a movie that pushes the spectator so he doesn't know what to expect. ¿Will it be all the product of a mental illness or will he be a prophet? ¿Will he do something awful because of his experiences or everything will work alright? When the first ending comes the ones who wanted a complex and tense mental issues situation will be satisfied, but the other ones perhaps not so much. Probably they will feel good enough with it, but there will still be a 'but'. Then comes the second ending and everyone will feel satisfied and fascinated, even the ones who weren't expecting it because they probably wanted to believe anyway.
This is also an actor's movie. Nothing of all that I have exposed until now would care if it weren't defended by a good actor. Michael Shannon gives everything he has inside and shows everyone that he is so much more than 'that guy from Boardwalk Empire' or support for diCaprio. This was his greatest opportunity to defend his career, a one-in-a-time opportunity to go to the next level or, at least, get the praise he deserves, and he nails it. He even has the look for the part.
Jessica Chastain is limited by his character. It's an important and great character, but it's not meant to be so real as lovable. Her character is a caring woman and a good wife, without being overly stupid, and when the time comes for it she shows that she can act way more than alright. This just wasn't her movie to shine in. It's great when the 'wife' is more than just a person who is there to make everyone feel bad. She is here to bring tension, true, but also to show how a family sticks together. I know it has also some old fashioned values in the mix, but the thing is that you can see the love through acts not just words.
The cinematography is gorgeous and schizophrenic. It's simple, blindingly clear and distant when the story asks for it and intense, cloudy and close when needed. The camera work blends magnificently with the script, directing and magic of Jeff Nichols. He brings a number of characters in the mix to add spice to the cooking he is brewing. The mother, the brother, the boss, the friend... they all serve to distract you while he digs the foundations of the tension that will build up in the end. All of the secondary plots (the money issues, the work problems, the daughter's deafness, the family history) are good by themselves, but aren't directly related to the main issue, they're just tricks used with reason and restrain.
The dramatism of this movie is full of tricks and red herrings, but you won't care a bit. All are used with the best of intentions and all work nicely to keep you hooked. The only dark point is that it will probably don't work so good with a second view. After the first watch, all the mirrors will be exposed and you will only have a great pair of actors working a great pair of characters... OK, that can't be so bad.
In the end it's a movie you won't forget. Can you say it of many other?
8/10
