Movie Review: “Winter’s Tale” — This Snowy Drama Is a Hot Mess
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Aby Baker/Getty Images(NEW YORK) — Winter’s Tale is one of three romance-based films out just in time for Valentine’s Day (four, if you’re weird and count RoboCop), and it’s by far the most fantastical. Colin Farrell stars as Peter Lake, a bad boy with a heart of gold, looking to leave his life of crime behind. When he meets Beverly Penn, played by former Downton Abbey star Jessica Brown Findlay, he realizes his true life’s calling is to do nothing more than stare into her eyes. Which, to be fair, are quite magical.
But of course, it’s never that easy. Their love is tested and tortured by a great many things, including a very frightening Russell Crowe. And along the way there are flying horses, dying children, and the Devil in a Jimi Hendrix t-shirt.
Explaining what happens in Winter’s Tale is tough, because the storyline is not quite clear. It’s based on the book of the same name by Mark Helprin. However, one may get the feeling that there’s a lot in the book that didn’t make it into the movie, and perhaps in shaving the story down to two hours on the screen, certain basic explanations didn’t make the cut. It’s the kind of film that could have benefitted from having someone not at all involved in the process step back, take a look at the whole thing, and say, “Yeah, this doesn’t quite add up.”
Winter’s Tale asks you to accept a lot of things as true or possible, without telling you why or how they are. Like that flying horse. Sometimes it works, but more often than not it’s silly. This is a silly movie masquerading as a serious love story, and it’s just hard to buy into.
The silliness is even more surprising when you look at all of the talented people involved: the aforementioned Colin Farrell and Russell Crowe, William Hurt, Jennifer Connelly, Matt Bomer, and a surprise guest whose identity I won’t spoil. Also, it was directed and co-written by Akiva Goldsman, his first time behind the camera though he certainly knows his way around a script, having won an Oscar for writing A Beautiful Mind.
That’s not to say there aren’t bright spots. Jessica Brown Findlay lights up the screen every time she’s on it. There’s real chemistry between her and Farrell, and I wouldn’t mind watching them teamed up in another film. In fact, most of the acting is good, though it’s hard to understand Crowe half the time.
Winter’s Tale is the kind of film where you laugh at inappropriate times, and instead of wiping away tears at the end, you’re left scratching your head. If you make it your Valentine’s date-night movie, you’ll be too busy trying to figure out what just happened to make out.
Two out of five stars.
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