Review of The Name of the Rose (1986) by Rainer K — 22 Feb 2013

After years, it was time to revisit Jean-Jacques Annaud's adaptation of Umberto Eco's bestseller.

I kinda like Eco. Not that I love his books or his scientific publications, but I think he'd be a cool guy to have a beer with and discuss literature, art or philosophy.

Anyways, I didn't have the best memories of The Name of the Rose but thought the time was right to give it another try. And while it actually really grew on me, it's still not much more than a decent flick.

The premise sounds great: A crime flick set in a medieval monastery and a monk (played by Sean Connery) as investigator. Throw in an awesome cast and some serious gore and you got your film.

The basic plot and idea of the film is great indeed, I only had one big issue: The film, again and again, becomes gimmicky throughout the movie. The straightforward plot and the well-written characters thus suffer from sensationalism. The film is shot in a pretty naturalistic manner, and most of the time the characters behave quite logical but then, out of nowhere, they added elements no one asked for, that maybe worked well in the novel but feel kinda rushed and unnecessary in the film (e.g. the peasant girl or the other Franciscan friars who arrive).

I appreciated the mysteries of the library or the fancy way the murders were executed but I think Annaud tried to squeeze in too much of the book's content.

My props to Sean Connery who plays William of Baskerville (an homage to Sherlock Holmes) pitch-perfect, as well as to Eco's script which gives us one of the better crime mysteries and settings that I've seen so far.