An average movie

I wasn’t sure what to expect from this movie but since I have a huge weak spot for Emma Thompson, I was still eager to check it out. I must admit it, it all started pretty good and I really admired the relationship between Charles and Sebastian thanks to the great performances by Matthew Goode and Ben Wishaw, two actors who keep impressing me each time I see them again. Unfortunately, the rest of the movie was rather dull. Of course, Charles falls for the sister which it was terribly predictable and, honestly, not really interesting. And the rest of the story was not much better, I’m afraid. I mean, they try to convince you that the mother, the catholic dogma and even the house have some terrible influence on this family, basically, destroying them but I didn’t really buy it. The main issue, in my opinion, is that the book itself (which I haven’t read) probably develop much more all those elements whereas they all felt pretty much half-baked in this movie. I mean, at some point, Sebastian goes to Morocco and for a while, I thought he was dead since he wasn’t around anymore and nobody was talking about him but, no, apparently, he was still alive! What happened to him? Why was he not coming back? Why didn’t they get in touch with him? Why didn’t Charles get in touch with him? And it is the same about most of the characters and the sub-plots. It’s too bad because I think the whole thing really had some potential. Indeed, the cinematography was pretty good and the relationship between those two guys was really interesting. To conclude, in spite of its flaws, above all thanks to the actors involved, I still think it is worth a look though, especially if you like the genre.

6/10