Guillermo del Toro is a director and artist whose films fall into two distinct categories: big budget English language blockbusters like "Hellboy" and "Pacific Rim" and lesser known, low budget Spanish language horror films like "Devil's Backbone" and "Pan's Labyrinth". His latest film, "Crimson Peak" is what happens when these two worlds collide, in other words, a big budget English language horror film.
"Crimson Peak" is set in the late 19th century, first in New York, then in rural England. Edith Cushing (Mia Wasikowska) is a young budding writer who is intelligent, beautiful, and strong willed, refusing to allow Victorian sensibilities dictate what she can and cannot do, and as a result butts heads with those around her. Thomas Sharpe (Tom Hiddleston) is an English aristocrat and inventor who is in New York seeking financial backing for his mechanized clay mining business back home. When tragedy strikes, Thomas marries Edith and brings her to his home, Allerdale Hall in Cumberland, where his sister Lucille Sharpe (Jessica Chastain) is waiting. As Edith tries to fit into her new surroundings, she discovers that secrets abound and nothing is as it seems.
First, 'Crimson Peak' is not a horror film; it is a 'gothic romance' (with some horror elements thrown into the mix). The genre hasn't been visited upon for decades, yet Del Toro does a fine job of offering his own take on it. The film also contains plenty of blood and gore - so if you don't have a stomach for that kind of stuff, your chances of finishing this film are nil (for there are far more disturbing aspects).
The story constantly switches in tone. I get that its a 'gothic romance' (two genres that can't be any further apart from each other), but it can get confusing for some people very quickly. One scene might seem like it was from a romantic period film while the next might seem like something out of a thriller! I think Del Toro and Robbins did a fine job of balancing the pacing, but they could have certainly tweaked a few things and cut the runtime down by an extra ten or fifteen minutes.
That being said, the plot is pretty straightforward - up until the last third of the film. Again, there are some disturbing details that both Edith and the audience discover. It took me some time to connect certain things, but I eventually figured out the bigger picture. Nevertheless, the very nature of this film will undoubtedly shock you - and will do it in a way that no other film released this year has.
The ending bothered me the most. The order of it was just all over the place. Thomas was bumbling about like the imbecile he is. He doesn't come to really mean much of anything. Edith saves herself and he just wanders in to his sister's lair. He might as well have just stabbed himself in the face and saved everyone else the trouble of his existence. His presence might have meant something if he would have walked in to declare that this wasn't okay and that he was going to let Edith go or that they'd live together or something in his crazy head BEFORE Edith had already saved herself. But since Edith had already seemingly stabbed the bitch in the heart (a lot of that pen went pretty deep) it wasn't really meaningful. That plot arrangement was just as pointless as the character, Thomas.
was blown away by the set, the house and all it contained it was just so rich and delightful you just want to live in that set minus the ghosts for a little while, it's that inviting. It's perhaps the story itself that lets it down a bit. Let's just say it's not exactly something you haven't seen before in films.
7/10 IMDb
69% Rotten Tomatoes
67% Metacritic
7/10 Verdict
No comments:
Post a Comment