I know this is a bold statement but I consider this a top 10 film made since 2000. Though it certainly is flawed, the writing is superb, the story is deep, unique, ambitious and beautiful. I also find the score hauntingly beautiful. As you pointed out Jeremy Lyons was terribly miscast and any good and actually old male actor would have been an significant improvement (Brando and DeNiro are the only younger actors to have ever convincingly play a geriatric old man). Ironically, critics favorite part of the film was Lyons performance, proving they generally have terrible taste. The other major flaw is the story is too nestled to understand or appreciate without several viewings. This confusion is created by the fact that maybe 15% of the film shows what the movie is really about - the Dennis Quade character/reality, and the 85% of the film is the two allegories from which we learn about Quaid's quagmire - the Bradly Cooper story and the story of his discovered manuscript. We only learn this in the end, that Quaid's writings are based on his real life tragedy and efforts to find catharsis by artistically translating them into his work where Cooper get the happy ending that eluded Quaid. So ultimately, Quaid is revealed to have traded what he had for his dream then wishing he could undo the trade. The age gap between Quaid and Wilde that you lament is to purposeful to emphasize that even the prospect of a young beautiful woman is insufficient to replace the true love he lost. This is shown through the final scene where he rejects Wilde and she asks what he really wants - and he retreats to his fictional work where Cooper is forgiven by Zoe.
I have honestly never heard of this movie at all and I’ll be honest it does not sound like my cup of tea, however B+ is a decent score of the movie based on hearing your thoughts great review man
I know this is a bold statement but I consider this a top 10 film made since 2000. Though it certainly is flawed, the writing is superb, the story is deep, unique, ambitious and beautiful. I also find the score hauntingly beautiful. As you pointed out Jeremy Lyons was terribly miscast and any good and actually old male actor would have been an significant improvement (Brando and DeNiro are the only younger actors to have ever convincingly play a geriatric old man). Ironically, critics favorite part of the film was Lyons performance, proving they generally have terrible taste.
The other major flaw is the story is too nestled to understand or appreciate without several viewings. This confusion is created by the fact that maybe 15% of the film shows what the movie is really about - the Dennis Quade character/reality, and the 85% of the film is the two allegories from which we learn about Quaid's quagmire - the Bradly Cooper story and the story of his discovered manuscript. We only learn this in the end, that Quaid's writings are based on his real life tragedy and efforts to find catharsis by artistically translating them into his work where Cooper get the happy ending that eluded Quaid. So ultimately, Quaid is revealed to have traded what he had for his dream then wishing he could undo the trade. The age gap between Quaid and Wilde that you lament is to purposeful to emphasize that even the prospect of a young beautiful woman is insufficient to replace the true love he lost. This is shown through the final scene where he rejects Wilde and she asks what he really wants - and he retreats to his fictional work where Cooper is forgiven by Zoe.
I have honestly never heard of this movie at all and I’ll be honest it does not sound like my cup of tea, however B+ is a decent score of the movie based on hearing your thoughts great review man
Yeah it's not many peoples cup of tea and I'm not fully sure why. I don't blame ya though. Thanks for watching!
Never heard of it