After watching The Greatest last night, I had trouble deciding whether this particular movie is truly a good story or a story with just a few good parts? So, I decided to sleep on it, in order to have time to reflect and analyse properly. I take film review very seriously, just in case you haven’t noticed by now.
The story is about a family who loses their son in a car accident and as each member of the family tries to cope with the loss in their own way, they begin to withdraw and disconnect from one another. During their mourning period, a young girl by the name of Rose (Carey Mulligan) comes to live with them because she claims she was their dead son’s girlfriend who was carrying his child. As the family tries to handle their grief, Rose tries to assist each one in the healing process by reflecting upon her relationship with their dead son.
From the synopsis, I was already on the fence about the storyline, but after seeing it and having the chance to reflect upon it overnight, I realized the movie is just a story with a few good parts. Don’t get me wrong, I have the utmost respect for Carey Mulligan’s work and consider Susan Sarandon to be a pretty strong actor as well, but Pierce Brosnon was ill fit for the role of the grieving father. Mulligan’s role wasn’t as crucial as expressed through the synopsis and trailer and her performance as a result seemed mediocre and not very convincing. In this case, it seemed the burden of quality performance lay upon Sarandon’s shoulders and she was just okay.
In addition, writer/director Shana Faste seemed to have trouble with the flow of the film. The story was too slow paced and rather boring, the dialogue was minimal and not very coherent. However, throughout the movie, there were a few parts which, I am certain, impacted the audience to some degree in order to stay tuned and finish the film.
I walked away from the film not feeling too much. That is not to say that I don’t feel or didn’t feel anything but it wasn’t enough to make the movie THE GREATEST or Oscar worthy for 2010.
B-lot buzz 