Search results
Feb 14, 2014 · Sheila O'Malley criticizes the film version of "Winter's Tale" for its lack of visual splendor, emotional depth, and magical scope. She praises Colin Farrell and Jessica Brown Findlay for their performances, but laments the loss of the novel's poetic and philosophical elements.
Feb 14, 2014 · One night in early 20th-century New York, master thief Peter Lake (Colin Farrell) breaks into a Central Park mansion -- and quickly has his heart stolen by its occupant, Beverly Penn (Jessica ...
- (156)
- Akiva Goldsman
- PG-13
- Colin Farrell
Feb 13, 2014 · The film adaptation of “Winter’s Tale” partakes of wide-eyed mystical wonder but pitches helplessly into ridiculousness.
- Akiva Goldsman
- A.O. Scott
- 118 min
Feb 11, 2014 · Winter's Tale. Colin Farrell and "Downton Abbey" alum Jessica Brown Findlay star as lovers in Akiva Goldsman's directorial debut, an adaptation of Mark Helprin's 1983 novel.
- An epic mess.
- Verdict
By Jim Vejvoda
Posted: Feb 12, 2014 9:15 pm
Akiva Goldsman, who won an Oscar for scripting A Beautiful Mind after penning Joel Schumacher's Batman movies and before tackling Ron Howard's Dan Brown adaptations, makes his directorial debut with Winter's Tale, an adaptation of Mark Halprin's 1983 novel. Winter's Tale is a fantastical romantic epic featuring doomed love, a seemingly immortal man, a Pegasus, and angels and demons. There's even a baby in a basket washing ashore Moses-style.
The story proper starts in 1895 when orphaned thief Peter Lake (Colin Farrell) falls for Beverly Penn (Downton Abbey's Jessica Brown Findlay), a wealthy young woman dying of consumption, while robbing her family's New York City home. Before encountering Beverly, Peter has run afoul of the man who took him off the streets: Pearly Soames (Russell Crowe), who is actually a demon in the service of Lucifer. That's right.
Pearly is out to keep a miracle from happening by making sure Beverly -- who must sleep nude in a cold bath on the rooftop due to her fever -- dies. After Pearly attacks him, Peter finds himself in 2014 shambling around New York as a long-haired amnesiac looking for the red-headed woman whose image inspires his sidewalk chalk drawings.
This latter day subplot brings him into contact with reporter Virginia Gamely (Jennifer Connelly, wasted in a thankless, one-dimensional role) and her ailing daughter Abby (the awesomely named Ripley Sobo). Peter will find his fate and purpose intertwined with theirs, provided he can evade the relentless Pearly and his gang of devil's henchmen.
Winter's Tale plods along from one slipshod sequence to the next, never managing to get a handle on its epic narrative and weighed down by its own pretension. There probably could have been a very nice movie made from this fantastical material, but it's never focused enough to work and is almost immediately sunk by its own ridiculousness and melodr...
- Jim Vejvoda
- 3 min
Feb 12, 2014 · Film Review: ‘Winter’s Tale’. Akiva Goldsman's feature-directing debut is a cloying, sledgehammer-subtle adaptation of Mark Helprin's vastly richer novel. By Justin Chang. Angels and demons. A...
Feb 14, 2014 · Winter's Tale: Directed by Akiva Goldsman. With Colin Farrell, Matt Bomer, Lucy Griffiths, Michael Crane. A burglar falls for an heiress as she dies in his arms. When he learns that he has the gift of reincarnation, he sets out to save her.
