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The Man Who Cried

The Man Who Cried

List Price: $14.98
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Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Lovely Film
Review: Absorbing, touching and memorable.
Depp, as ever, is amazing and Ricci is excellent as well (as are the other actors). If you enjoy movies that are romantic yet not sappy, see this one! It also exposes the harsh realities of wartime and its ramifications-- especially the loss of family/identity (and the subsequent yearning to belong to a community). Certainly not a film for those who want a bit of cotton candy with their popcorn. Further, this film is well paced for its storyline.

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: The waiter took my plate away...
Review: ...while I was still eating the main course! That's how I felt about this movie.

It's so beautiful, I WANTED to love it. I'm a Depp fan, and he and Ricci make a lovely couple. Cate Blanchett is looking her best, and the plot is interesting.

Fegele is a young Jewish woman who has been separated from her family as a child. Raised in England by distant foster parents, she longs to go to America to find her father, but has to earn enough money first. Along the way, she meets a smolderingly handsome gypsy (Depp), a kindhearted Russian gold-digger (Blanchett), and a very self-centered Italian opera singer (Turturro). Meanwhile, the Nazi menace is approaching, and it's no good time to be a Jew in Europe. So far, so good.

Unfortunately, you don't get a chance to really grab hold of this movie. Characters don't do much talking (well, except the opera singer, but who wants to hear him rant?). There's a lot of dialogue conducted via soulful looks and silent reproaches. All very nicely done, but it's up to you to figure out what characters are really thinking and feeling.

But here's thing that really bugged me: The ending. If you like to have the loose ends all tied up when the credits roll, you'll be disappointed. I felt the ending was rushed, and could've easily done with another 30 minutes or so. Instead, I was left wondering what would've happened next. If you don't mind that, rent the movie and enjoy it.

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: Just......No.
Review: The back of the movie described it as a tale of "passion, intrigue, and betrayal", though I was the one who felt betrayed. I was highly bored throughout the whole movie:

A lot happens in this movie. It just all happens very....oddly. There is very little dialouge. Scenes shift from people singing on stage to people staring at each silently to wandering around. Every time you expect some type of drama or excitement, the scene changes.

While the movie progresses, we see different lives: Russian jews, roaming gypies, the opera. We really don't get any sort of feel for their lives though. We see five minutes of each, usually little understand since it's in a foreign language.

There doesn't seem to be any real emotion in the movie. Susie's village is burned, the Germans march through Paris...but no one really seems to care! We get one emotional scene between Ricci and Depp, but even then it's not expressed well.

This movie alternated between putting me to sleep and making me swear at the randomness of the scene transitions. It's not a good romance, not a good drama, it's just nothing. A hour and 40 minute bore.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: A visually beautiful film in the shadow of oppression...
Review: A Russian-Jewish man travels alone to the United States in order start a better life for his family, which he intends to send for when he has raised enough money. However, the communist rule under Stalin separates the family which leads to the death of the mother and the escape of the daughter, Suzie (Christina Ricci). Suzie's escape brings her to England where she is adopted and forced to assimilate to the British traditions and culture that eradicates her of her own past. Years later when Suzie has reached adulthood she travels to Paris with hopes to raise money that can bring her to her father in the United States. In Paris she meets love, dreams, hope, and horror as she must face anti-Semitism brought to France by the Nazi's during World War II. Man Who Cried is visually stunning as it portrays the struggles of Suzie and those around her in a time of hostility. The visual elements are also enhanced by a terrific cast such as Christina Ricci, Johnny Depp, Cate Blanchett, John Turturro and many more. In the end, Potter ties together a meaningful cinematic experience that has both historical value as well as morals.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: A good story, but just a little too surreal
Review: The film starts in Russia in the early 20th century, with a Jewish man and his young daughter frolicking in the snow-filled forest. Their love for each other is apparent and she is big-eyed with tears when he leaves her with her grandmother and goes to America. Right after that, their village is attacked and she has to flee in a small horse-drawn cart with other children. She is the only survivor and somehow manages to get to a boat. She wants to go to America, but is instead sent to England, given foster parents and sent to a strict English school. The young actress, Claudia Lander-Duke, is wonderful. She doesn't speak much, but her eyes tell it all.

Always searching for her father, the young girl grows up to be Christina Ricci with an English accent. She goes to Paris to earn enough money to go to America by working in a music hall and shares an apartment with Cate Blanchard, cast as a Russian gold digger who trying to develop a relationship with an Italian opera star played by John Turturro. He believes in Mussolini and supports the Nazis who are gaining strength and about to march on Paris. Johnny Depp plays a gypsy who falls in love with Cristina Ricci. The political situation in Paris gets worse and worse, especially because she is Jewish.

There's some excellent directing and camerawork in this film, with muted colors portraying the harsh Russian winter. As this is a low budget film, we never see any of the large action scenes; we only see the characters' reaction to them. This really works well. I also found myself caring about the characters and, at times, I actually had tears in my eyes. At only 97 minutes, the film is just the right length, and it held my interest throughout.

But there was something missing which is hard to define. Johnny Depp rode a white stallion in almost every scene and this seemed much to surreal; Christina Ricci had a lot less of the fire I've come to expect from her performances; some of the scenes moved a little slow for my taste; and I just couldn't quite believe that a young Jewish refugee would be swept up at the dock and sent to England instead of America. I'm glad I saw the film though. I did enjoy it. There's a lot to like about it. I just can't say it was great and tell you to rush to see it. Not bad. But there are better films around.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Actors' Showcase
Review: This is a great "acting" movie. The stars are great, but the rest of the movie was missing something--my interest.

I'm not saying it was bad. The acting was wonderful, masterful even. The cast consists of Christina Ricci, Johnny Depp, John Turturro, and Cate Blanchett, all doing work that is equivalent to their best. Ricci, especially, as the main character, gets to run the gamut of emotions and I couldn't take my eyes off her. Blanchett does a thick accent that is hard to understand sometimes, but her performance was as good as I've seen her give. And as for Depp and Turturro, well, they don't make wrong moves. Even if they are in bad films now and again, they can always be depended upon to give superb performances.

No, the cast was not the problem. It was the story. I just didn't care what was happening. I liked watching great actors practice their craft, and I cared about them, but I couldn't get involved in the story. I know there was some subplot involving a white horse, but I couldn't tell you the significance, except to make the Johnny Depp character look sensitive, but he does that anyway.

I would definitely recommend it for fans of the actors, but I couldn't recommend it as entertainment.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: \m/
Review: I haven't seen this film either but I still give it 5 stars because it ... has Johnny in it.

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: The Holocaust goes Hollywood...literally!
Review: From an impoverished Jewish settlement in Russie to the soundstages of Hollywood, this well intentioned but overwrought melodrama seems much longer than its nearly two hours.

In spite of the interesting, original premise, the story goes south with incessant lipsynching and an improbable melange of accents. Christina Ricci's tragic waif, "Susie," isn't a viable heroine in spite of excellent performances by the stars surrounding her. Blanchett, as usual, steals the show and captivates every moment of her screen time.

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: Just......No.
Review: The back of the movie described it as a tale of "passion, intrigue, and betrayal", though I was the one who felt betrayed. I was highly bored throughout the whole movie:

A lot happens in this movie. It just all happens very....oddly. There is very little dialouge. Scenes shift from people singing on stage to people staring at each silently to wandering around. Every time you expect some type of drama or excitement, the scene changes.

While the movie progresses, we see different lives: Russian jews, roaming gypies, the opera. We really don't get any sort of feel for their lives though. We see five minutes of each, usually little understand since it's in a foreign language.

There doesn't seem to be any real emotion in the movie. Susie's village is burned, the Germans march through Paris...but no one really seems to care! We get one emotional scene between Ricci and Depp, but even then it's not expressed well.

This movie alternated between putting me to sleep and making me swear at the randomness of the scene transitions. It's not a good romance, not a good drama, it's just nothing. A hour and 40 minute bore.

Rating: 2 stars
Summary: lacks, big time
Review: I was very, very, very, very dissapointed with this movie. There was a lot of things in his movie that were good (Johnny Depp being one of them, though silent he still pulls it off in the end). This is the second movie they have been in (Sleepy Hollow being the other one) CAte Blanchett is annoying in her russian accent and John Tuturro is so ever nagging (Tuturro and Depp team up 3 years later in Secret Window). lots of singing and Blanchett seduces Tuturro alot. Depp and his care for his family and his silent love for Ricci are the main points I really thought were good but it did end well and thank god Blanchett got blown away towards the end. a let down, really


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