Review of Calvaire (2005) by Dan G — 26 Mar 2009
The plot synopsis for this film is misleading and wildly incorrect. There is some blood but the film as a whole is not bloody; the main character just spends half of the movie bleeding from a whack on the head and thats about it.
And the main characters being a wedding singer? So far as I could tell, he was a hack of a singer performing for holiday functions in retirement homes. Get it right. The pacing is glacier slow and while the ending has some similarities to Straw Dogs, it is almost just like a half-hearted homage that may as well have not bothered.
Just watch Straw Dogs; there the mounting suspense pays off and builds more skillfully and the climax is charmingly ambiguous rather than just ambiguous. Much of this film lacks definition and direction.
The performances of the two main characters are pretty good, but thats not enough to save the movie. Slow and ultimately unsatisfying as it was, I will give it props for having style. While nothing much was going on, I was still begrudgingly intrigued.
But it didnt pay off. Still; there was SOMETHING there... but not enough something to not make me regret having watched the film.
This review of Calvaire (2005) was written by Dan G on 26 Mar 2009.
Calvaire has generally received mixed reviews.
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