A good movie

Since this movie turned out to be a critical and commercial flop, I did lower down my expectations but I have always been a huge fan of Daniel Day-Lewis so I was still eager to check it out. Well, to be honest, I didn’t think it was so bad at all after all. Indeed, the mood was solid and I really loved the soundtrack. However, since it was a directorial debut, it did feel rather pretentious but it was to be expected. The fact that story turned out to be rather derivative probably didn’t help. I think the thing that bothered me the most was how Brian’s life was completely shattered because he never knew his biological father. Sure, it is certainly unfortunate but, to be honest, it does happens all the time, even nowadays, that fathers abandon their children but not everybody gets screwed up like that in the process. It was also rather cringe that his mother would decide to hook up with his uncle when his father left. Eventually, it seemed that all these decisions were made not because it made sense for the characters but because, otherwise, there wouldn’t be a story to tell. Anyway, the main reason to watch this movie was mostly because Daniel Day-Lewis was involved and, once again, the guy just really nailed it. Eventually, it felt to me as if this movie was Day-Lewis’s last (or maybe not?) middle finger to the movie business and audience basically saying ‘I don’t give a crap if this movie doesn’t make any money or if nobody actually likes it, I just want to spend some quality time with my son sharing with him my greatest talent’. Eventually, you spent almost 2 hrs in a cabin in the woods with this guy and, like Sean Bean’s character who didn’t do much after all, we just watch him doing his thing and it was just marvelous and spellbinding to behold. I think there was also a nice parallel between this character who disappeared for 20 years and Day-Lewis who basically disappeared from the movie world during the last 8 years. Will it be his last film? Like Day-Lewis, I don’t know and, honestly, I don’t care. Even though this movie didn’t get much love, it was glorious to see one of the greatest actors shine one more time and I think it is definitely worth a look.

7/10