Evening
'Stealing Beauty'. Her previous jaunt into cinema may have been missable, but I personally would have expected her to learn from her mistakes. Nonetheless, it is perhaps a little harsh to lay the film's failings at the feet of Minot. She was not the sole screenwriter and rumours circulated that her vision for the film conflicted with that of her co-screenwriter and fellow author Michael Cunningham, and the film departs from the original novel at several points. The switches between the past and present in the film are clunky and far less subtle than in the novel, and whilst the novel aims to contrast a grim present with a halcyon past, the film presents an image of a life lived to the full, a life that perpetuates itself in all its mediocre glory every time we reproduce. Hardly a conclusion worthy of a novelist of Minot's talents. Director Lajos Koltai must also shoulder his share of the blame for failing to make the most out of this story, after all if a cast this strong cannot save a film, what can? On leaving the cinema, what I was left with was a sense that the film was an incomplete jigsaw. The Ann's memories hinted at regret, but the characters of her past were not sufficiently developed to allow the audience to understand why she regretted their loss, or to empathise with the plight which she suffered with them. The characters of the present - Nina and Constance - came across as contrived, and added little to the already weak core motifs of the story. Whether you want to an emotional drama, some pretty cinematography, or a clever study of memory and loss from this film - you will be disappointed.