More drama please, Crimson Peak
Thursday, October 15, 2015 at 8:00PM Here's Murtada to review the new wide release Crimson Peak.
Visually Guillermo Del Toro’s Crimson Peak is a big sumptuous meal. So visually full at all times that it masquerades a thin plot and uninteresting lead character and almosts gets away with fooling us into thinking it a great film. The compelling visuals keep it enticing throughout: Huge frilly sleeves on the dresses; red smoke flaring up from creeks on the floor; a creepy black skeleton hand moving ominously. It never stops.
Edith Cushing (Mia Wasikowska) is an aspiring writer in late 19th century New York. She falls for the smolderingly handsome Englishman Thomas Sharpe (Tom Hiddleston) despite the quiet adoration of her childhood friend Alan McMichael (Charlie Hunnam). After being whisked away to England by her new husband she has to contend not only with his malevolent sister Lucille (Jessica Chastain) but also with their old decrepit mansion that might be full of ghosts.
Something sinister has definitely happened there at some time in the past.
Del Toro is so eager to get to the house, that we spend too little time on the romance. If you want to out-Brontë Emily Brontë maybe spend more time making us believe in the connection between your two leads? The script, by Del Toro and Matthew Robbins, is a bit thinly plotted. All obstacles are set and then immediately resolved, sometimes even in the next scene. No stakes, no real drama.
More damningly there are not enough scares. Creepy visuals and portentous sounds just aren’t enough. The chilly and sinister vibe comes mostly from Chastain’s full-on Mrs Danvers performance. Everytime she is on screen she is so much fun to watch. She doesn’t go big but rather a very measured evil ghoulishness. Expect to see quotes and gifs aplenty. In comparison Wasikowska suffers from the lack of drama as written. Despite being the lead and in almost every scene, she is given very little to play with. Scared mostly, determined sometimes. She does however get a lovely dance scene with Hiddleston. If there was more of that, the romance would’ve become more alluring.
A lot of intricate detail evidently went into costume designer Kate Hawley’s work. However some of the costumes are not eye-pleasing. The sets, by production designer Thomas E. Sanders, though, are to die for and are the film’s strongest element. The minutiae and sophistication of the labyrinthinian house are so successful it becomes a fascinating character on its own. The house and the fun Chastain has with her evil part make this an enjoyable couple of hours at the movies.
Grade: B
Reader Comments (9)
Chastain said Bette Davis in Baby Jane and Kathy Bates in Misery were her actress inspirations for Crimson Peak.
Chastain has gotten a lot of good notices. Pity it won't amount to much (like A Most Violent Year-that snub is still a fresh wound). Hope she doesn't become like Jake Gyllenhaal and keep missing out on nominations.
I'm puzzled why everyone seemed to be so excited for this in the first place. The trailer already revealed that it's a clichéd story with lots of over-the-top, unscary CGI.
I really wish I could buy into Chastain,just seems she has been put there and we are told "Worship",all this silly she is overdue stuff,yet she has never wowed me personally,i am waiting for the role where i can say "now i understand the fuss".
Chastain wowed in Zero Dark Thirty. I felt she was also quite good (although not amazing in Interstellar and A Most Violent Year). She was bad in The Help and average in everything else. So is she over praised in the internet? Absolutely there are other actresses with an equal number or greater number of wow performances that don't get a tenth of the adoration she gets. Is she worth getting excited over though? Absolutely - please go rewatch Zero Dark Thirty.
Anonny - couldn't disagree with you more re The Help. It's my favorite performance of Chastain's. So openhearted, funny, sexy and vulnerable, I could watch Celia Foote all day on loop.
"More damningly there are not enough scares. Creepy visuals and portentous sounds just aren’t enough. The chilly and sinister vibe comes mostly from Chastain’s full-on Mrs Danvers performance."
Isn't that the point?
I loved it, FWIW. Exquisite gothic romantic horror where the ghosts are metaphors for the past (del Toro tells us this repeatedly) and the real horror resides in those still living. It's beautifully designed, scored and filmed - del Toro communicates so much with his imagery - it has a great sense of humor, and the performances are uniformly great. For me it's one of the best studio releases of the year and a welcome, long overdue comeback for Mr. Del Toro, playing joyously to his strengths after years in the blockbuster trenches.
And those close up shots of the dying butterfly!
Jessica Chastain is on a spectacular roll--I have never seen such a winning streak for a talented actor. Not to mention the sheer amount of celluloid she's graced. Just saw her in The Martian, and such impressive work. Brava!
I thought Jessica Chastain scared me the most with her performance, all done with a Mrs. Danvers-eque minimalism.
What I don't get is Mia Wasikowska, whose every performance I've seen is the epitome of Just. Okay. She's not incandescent and lacks charisma.
Tom Hiddleston's best moment is when he's giving his "bad review" of Edith's writing, and you can see he's giving it his best. And wow, has Charlie Hunnam been terrible this whole time? I've not seen Sons of Anarchy, but his lifeless expressions make me think he would have made 50 Shades of Grey even worse.
The storytelling was dire and not very mysterious, not very romantic (still very bloody though). Despite this, I'm not mad at the movie. I was never bored, but ultimately you're led nowhere.