Review of The Island (2007) by Peter G — 07 Jul 2011

There's a literary scholar called Marina Mackay who argues that there are "catholic" novels (of which Don Quixote is the archetype) and there are "protestant" novels (of which the works of George Eliot are typical - and, I would argue, a lot of Graham Greene too!).

I'm coming to the conclusion that there's an orthodox patten of storytelling too and this movie (along with some other Russian films I've seen recently) is a very good example. It's nothing to do with the explicit religious content, it's got something to do with the sheer unexpectedness of the narrative.

This is a wonderful movie - wonderfully acted, wonderfully filmed, wonderfully told. It is provocative and, if you can hit its wavelength, intensely moving. Another movie that it's hard to imagine Hollywood ever producing.