Reviews

I've enjoyed this film many times now and it never fails to delight me. All of the singers, particularly Luciano Pavarotti are magnificent. His voice is at his absolute best with all the power, intensity and sparkle that made him such a delightful performer. I enjoyed Edita Gruberova's Gilda very much as well, with her wonderful high notes that could simply float in the air and take me with them.

One thing I really love about the film is the clear and decisive choices the director made and some of the insights into the depths of the story. Examples of this are when the courtiers are watching Gilda during her "Caro Nome". I understand that it was Verdi and Piave who put them there, but watching the film I really got the sense that even a moment so private and rapturous for Gilda, the daughter of a hunchbacked jester is nothing more than a joke for those in power. Rigoletto is really about dehumanization and the incredible difference between the powers of the wealthy and the impotent ones who serve them. Rigoletto's attempt at revenge isn't even noticed by the powerful Duke.

Other reviewers have complained about the lip-syncing and the acting. First, the lip-syncing is all but a necessity and I feel it frees up the performers to focus more on their acting. The acting is, admittedly, exaggerated, as you might expect from stage actors, but is also extremely expressive and clearly helps tell the story, even if you don't fully understand the Italian text.

I was thoroughly entertained and impressed.

I love Atlas Shrugged, it's one of my favorite books. So even though I didn't expect too much from this film I was very excited to see it. But much of the appeal of the novel to me is the challenge of trying to connect with the philosophy behind the story of railroads, metals and motors. On those terms this adaptation of Atlas comes across as extremely watered down, almost like I was watching a film adaptation of a summary of the novel, not the novel itself. The problems start in the very first scene with the huge cliché of showing the ending first and then presenting the movie as a flashback leading up to that point. Forgivable, but gimmicky. Second, I'm not used to groaning or rolling my eyes during a film, but this one had me doing it often, particularly when any character asked "Who is John Galt?" I felt like it was used to remind us that we were watching Atlas Shrugged. And worse, it was used SO incorrectly! The exposition on the film was horrendous, lacking in any sort of artistic ingenuity. The film's method of informing the audience about the past events was basically "Hey Dagny, remember when we built the John Galt Line and everyone tried to stop us but we did it anyway?" "Yep Hank, I remember that."

In short, details aside such as I've mentioned, I can't imagine how the film could have been better. I can't imagine how somebody could do a decent adaptation of Atlas Shrugged without losing the entire purpose for which it was written. I can't say I'm disappointed, only because I didn't have high expectations to begin with.