The story seems original, but at the end it's just a variation of the Greek classic tragedy theme extended over time. It's the eternal crime and punishment, sin and redemption story. Nothing against to recycle this theme if you do it in a proper way. In writing it's more difficult to do it, you will be instantly compared to Dostoevsky - which novel, by the way, I find more and more hard to be considered as a masterpiece by the present and future generations. What many of the younger generation will find hard to swallow from the story of this film - as I also do find, while being in my late 50's - is the explicit, direct, high level miracles performed by the main character. No mystery, no doubt, no effort, the present and the future is just unfolding on front of him, healing the suffering and exorcising the devil is just a matter of a 1 minute prayer and it's done! It's erratic behavior is not convincing, the script-writer seems to have just looked hard to find something to put into the story. Now about the filming. Black and white somehow becomes the boring norm for this kind of films. Long shots of water rippling along the shore is so unoriginal after Tarkovsky's masterpiece "Stalker". All in all is not a movie hard to watch, just that at the end you have the feeling of an under-accomplished work, a strain with mediocre result.
Review of The Island
