Review of Bloom (2004) by David H — 20 Aug 2012
The characters from Joyce's Ulysses are personified in this film.
My sentence-long summary of the film is as it is because the film is so loosely based on Joyce's book that it's hard to call this an adaptation; the characters have the same names and act vaguely like the book's characters, a few of the events are the same, but there are a lot of liberties taken. With a book like , which is the pinnacle of modernism, this is understandable, and in fact, I think Bloom is a very good attempt at an impossible task. The voice overs, which usually amount to lazy story-telling, are appropriate, even though they get somewhat overlong and overbearing, and Angeline Ball is exactly how I imagined Molly Bloom when I read the book so many years ago.
The film's problem is that while it presents these characters, there are no specific goals, no central conflicts, nothing to drive the plot forward. To some degree this comes with the modernist territory, but Joyce's book found little steps to push along the narrative, and the film's focus remains lost.
Overall, is a valiant attempt, but it's no substitute for or even imitation of its source material.
This review of Bloom (2004) was written by David H on 20 Aug 2012.
Bloom has generally received mixed reviews.
Was this review helpful?
