Rowing with the Wind

Rating:
Summary: Strange and haunting, with superb acting and cinematography.
Review: A haunting, dreamlike film, occasionally powerful and moving, though more often dark and strange, "Rowing With the Wind" looks at the lives of the 19th century British poets George Gordon, Lord Byron and Percy Bysshe Shelley; and Shelley's wife, Mary, who became even more famous than her husband with the writing of Frankenstein.

The film looks at these writers' ideas only very generally, preferring to dwell somberly and with a majestic use of music (especially Ralph Vaughn Williams' "Fantasia on a Theme by Thomas Tallis"), scenery, and sets (stark castles, Venetian palaces) on the chaos of their personal relationships and the pain of their lives. In doing so, it suggests a monstrous reason for their many tragedies, but don't come to this film expecting a horror movie--the device is more metaphor than monster.

Hugh Grant proves once again that he is more deserving of reputation as an actor than a bad boy--though he does play Byron as a sort of ultimate bad boy--and the rest of cast is effective as well.

Rating:
Summary: Strange and haunting, with superb acting and cinematography.
Review: A haunting, dreamlike film, occasionally powerful and moving, though more often dark and strange, "Rowing With the Wind" looks at the lives of the 19th century British poets George Gordon, Lord Byron and Percy Bysshe Shelley; and Shelley's wife, Mary, who became even more famous than her husband with the writing of Frankenstein.

The film looks at these writers' ideas only very generally, preferring to dwell somberly and with a majestic use of music (especially Ralph Vaughn Williams' "Fantasia on a Theme by Thomas Tallis"), scenery, and sets (stark castles, Venetian palaces) on the chaos of their personal relationships and the pain of their lives. In doing so, it suggests a monstrous reason for their many tragedies, but don't come to this film expecting a horror movie--the device is more metaphor than monster.

Hugh Grant proves once again that he is more deserving of reputation as an actor than a bad boy--though he does play Byron as a sort of ultimate bad boy--and the rest of cast is effective as well.

Rating:
Summary: why frankestein is a good novel?
Review: a story that reveals once again that human soul is complex and full of desires. One of the best movies i have ever watched. It was a shock since i did not expect it to be so good. It is very easy to be misleaded if one seeks for a concrete story. This film is more about the pain of personalities in search of their lives and happiness to be found nowhere. It is a dark and subtle movie.Only for the patients though.It is very interesting to watch Hugh Grant as someone 'real' as well.

Rating:
Summary: A poor showcase for what should be a fascinating subject
Review: As a person who considers herself a keen student of the lives and works of the subjects of this film, I was highly disappointed by it. After watching it I can't think of a single scene that plays out even fractionally accurately - to give 2 examples - Polidori should be in his early 20's, but looks 40: Shelley's meeting with Byron in Venice was NOT with Claire and Mary in tow, but alone - Mary was sent for after he arrived... the list, sadly, is endless, and lacks any real sense. Whilst some biopics of this cabal are entertaining enough that the liberties they take with history are of little matter, this film has little to redeem it.

The acting is largely poor (Grant and Hurley are particularly wooden), the script banal, the pacing diabolically bad (although I do hear that the original cut was a good 30 minutes longer), and the transfer to DVD so bad that flaws in the film are visible, with not attempt made to restore the film it seems, and the sound quality is appalling, with a constant hiss and crackle audible throughout.

Valentine Pelka is perhaps the only occasionally bright spark in the whole production, playing a rather more robust Shelley than most writers or filmmakers see fit to give us - a welcome change, but not enough to save the film.

Anyone wanting to see a film based on the events of the "Year without a Summer" would do better to track down a copy of the 1988 film "Haunted Summer" starring Eric Stoltz and Philip Anglim, which whilst it takes frequent liberties with history, does at least make its characters recogniseable to those who know them from their biographies, letters and works, its errors being more of ommission, than of commission.

Rowing with the Wind I'm afraid makes even the crude excesses of "Gothic" look good by comparison - and even the Highlander episode "The Modern Prometheus" looked better!

Avoid.

Rating:
Summary: I actually enjoyed it.
Review: Based on other reviews, I went in with moderate-to-high hopes. Oh, how mistaken I was. Instead I was met with a plotless film, which would have been fine if the characters were developed more. The only character with any color is Hugh Grant's Lord Byron, who plays the part with delicious cynicism and wit. The rest of the cast is pretty flat--none of them show any of the intellect or personality their real-life counterparts were known to have. The so-called metaphorical monster is less metaphor and more of a big guy who looks bored and speaks haltingly. His presence in the film gave me hope that the plot would indeed show up, but alas no. Apart from fodder for Hugh Grant gazing, the film does have an occasionally topless Elizabeth Hurley in a supporting role, though it took me a minute to recognize her due to her generous eyebrows (must have been filmed in her pre-Estee Lauder spokesmodel days).

Rating:
Summary: 2 Hours of my life I can't get back
Review: Based on other reviews, I went in with moderate-to-high hopes. Oh, how mistaken I was. Instead I was met with a plotless film, which would have been fine if the characters were developed more. The only character with any color is Hugh Grant's Lord Byron, who plays the part with delicious cynicism and wit. The rest of the cast is pretty flat--none of them show any of the intellect or personality their real-life counterparts were known to have. The so-called metaphorical monster is less metaphor and more of a big guy who looks bored and speaks haltingly. His presence in the film gave me hope that the plot would indeed show up, but alas no. Apart from fodder for Hugh Grant gazing, the film does have an occasionally topless Elizabeth Hurley in a supporting role, though it took me a minute to recognize her due to her generous eyebrows (must have been filmed in her pre-Estee Lauder spokesmodel days).

Rating:
Summary: Helps to know something about Romantic poetry
Review: For the student of Romantic poetry, Rowing with the Wind provides an excellent insight into the lives of Mary Wollestonecraft, Percy Shelley and Lord Byron. Those unintested in those lives best avoid it. A European movie, it's probably too subtle and sophisticated for a lot of American tastes.

Rating:
Summary: I actually enjoyed it.
Review: I bought this DVD out of sheer curiosity. The write-up on its cover shamelessly and ridiculously exploits the "Sexy Hugh Grant and seductive Elizabeth Hurley" thing, attempting to ride the coattails of their later fame more than fifteen years after it was filmed. It cheapens the movie, in my opinion, and was half the reason I popped it into the DVD player not really expecting much. I was truly surprised, though, to find myself enjoying the humor and, most of all, intrigued and even moved by the story.

Don't get me wrong; it's definitely not factually accurate, and it is a perfect example of what Hugh Grant hilariously refers to as "Euro-pudding." However, it has its certain charms. Actually, I have found myself rewatching it on a few occasions because, as someone with some basic familiarity with literature of that era, the story stuck with me much more than I would have expected. I had to read up on Byron and the Shelleys, and then I rewatched it so it would make a little more sense to me, and what I really came to appreciate had less to do with factual depiction of events (and seriously, it's a movie about a fictional monster wreaking havoc on the life of its creator, so I wasn't expecting fact) but more to do with a very personal look at some larger-than-life characters. As someone below mentioned, Hugh Grant gives Byron an unexpected humanity, and Mary Shelley's sadness seeps through the self-appointed drama of the film to touch any viewer who has the slightest sympathy for the very tragic life she lived. It is an interesting concept to use her greatest achievement, Frankenstein, as a symbol of the misery she endured. She believes in the movie that she has brought life to imagination and ruined the lives of everyone she loves, but the omniscient viewer is haunted more by the idea that the horrors of her imagination were driven by the very real tragedies of her life.

My perspective on Rowing With the Wind boils down to that, a sympathy for these incredibly talented and incredibly sad people, and an appreciation for a film that in some way succeeds in humanizing their experience at the most tumultuous time of their lives. It is crazy - and probably intentionally so, as you are inside the reflections of a woman who was no stranger to psychological suffering. My advice is to take it with a grain of salt and maybe you will also be pleasantly surprised.

Rating:
Summary: I thought it was good.....mysterious....
Review: I didn't watch from beginning to end...rather came in after it began and no telling how much I missed....yet I liked it enough to scout out what it was. The monster made it somewhat spooky and mysterious and that grabbed my attention. Guess I don't know why so many don't like it.....I'd like to see it in its entirety, not for Hugh Grant...but to better understand the story.

Rating:
Summary: not very interesting
Review: maybe i'm just too picky because i'm fond of the quality of recent bbc films. i did not think much of this movie (pseudo-artsy, in my opinion..very drab and plotless). the characters are flat and boring. honestly, i can't believe i watched the whole movie.