Review of The Conformist (1971) by Ben L — 10 Oct 2017

The biggest death knell for a movie that I?m watching, worse than all my pet peeves combined, is when I find it boring. The Conformist not only managed to attain the title of ?boring? but it also pulled it off with a story about a spy attempting the assassination of a friend.

I lost interest so many times throughout this movie that I genuinely forgot what the plot was a couple times. It has these bland flashbacks showing how the main character started his relationship with his wife, and how he came to be the man he is when we first met him.

None of that held any interest to me. I didn?t even see the point in most of it. I struggled along through The Conformist, actually watching the film over several nights because I kept losing interest and nodding off to sleep.

There were 2 scenes I can recall from the entire film that actually intrigued me, but they didn?t go anywhere. When I read the plot outline on Wikipedia after finishing the film, it sounded much more interesting than the movie I just watched.

I don?t think I could see that story but, as I said, I was struggling to pay attention because this was so dull. The Conformist is a film I would urge most people to avoid, unless they need a good sleep aid.