Review of The Cook, the Thief, His Wife & Her Lover (1989) by William C — 15 Sep 2011
This was infamous in '89 for being uncompromising in its brutality, and was one of the major reasons NC-17 came to be. For those two reasons, most buffs are likely familiar with this movie (or have, at the very least, heard the name mentioned a couple of times).
I have a bad habit of nursing films that are built up to this degree -- this is why I regularly watch obscure titles nobody cares about, and keep forgetting to watch stuff like Casablanca and Citizen Kane. This, however, had the NC-17 attached to it, and whenever I see those four characters I just have to know what in the hell brought it on.
As for the film...well, I could write page after page, since Peter Greenaway is far from subtle. But I'm not being paid for this. Simply put, it's impeccable -- the acting, the set-pieces, the art direction, the soundtrack, the story, and the way the clashing themes blend so well together. Even the brutality is just as bad as it needs to be, and it could have easliy crossed the line into heavy-handedness.
What shocks the hell out of me is that I went into this movie WANTING to hate it, and was won over despite the director's tendency to be a pretentious ass. He gets pretty far up his own butt through much of this, but it's such a minor complaint it almost doesn't matter.
This review of The Cook, the Thief, His Wife & Her Lover (1989) was written by William C on 15 Sep 2011.
The Cook, the Thief, His Wife & Her Lover has generally received very positive reviews.
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