A good movie

To be honest, I wasn’t really sure what to expect from this flick but, since it was directed by Todd Haynes and since it was available on Amazon Prime, I was quite eager to check it out. In my opinion, it was his most ambitious movie so far and one of the most complex (in this area, it will be difficult to beat ‘I'm Not There.’ with its 5 or 6 different versions of Bob Dylan). Basically, this time, after the big critical success of ‘Carol’, Todd Haynes made a huge swing and, even if he didn’t really nail it, the end-result was still quite intriguing. I have to admit that I really didn’t know anything about this movie before watching it (I think it’s more rewarding to watch any movie this way) and, to be honest, the beginning was rather clunky. I mean, who were these characters? What was their relationship? How did they end up in this position? The bigger issue was that, even though the story was quite emotional and touching, if you think about it for a bit, it was actually super far-fetched. And, yet, it still worked for me though. Indeed, coming back on how ambitious it was, Haynes didn’t recreate one but two distinct vintage versions of New York (from 1927 and from 1977) and both versions felt so vibrant and really convincing. Basically, you get the feeling that you are watching two different movies at the same time which could have been jarring but it actually didn’t bother me. In fact, how the two storylines finally got united at the end was more problematic to me. What also worked was that the two actors playing the main characters in their respective timelines (Oakes Fegley and Millicent Simmonds) were really charismatic and they both delivered some strong performances. It was also pretty neat to see Julianne Moore shining again in another movie from Haynes, playing not one but two supporting characters. Anyway, to conclude, in spite of its flaws, it was still a decent watch and I think it is worth a look, especially if you are interested in Todd Haynes’s work. 

7/10