Review of Victoria (2015) by Riccardo N — 13 Apr 2016
A criminal Before Sunrise (the latter is now official a genre of its own) as filtered through Quentin Tarantino's True Romance, this is a one-take film that lasts 140mins and there lies both its strength and weakness.
It is indisputable that technically it was impressively executed by both the director and cinematographer. It is by no means perfect but if, as I've read, the film was truly done in one take, then this is an accomplishment that should rightfully be lauded.
However, this was done at the expense of the narrative. Pacing is a problem and at times, one longs for the fast forward button or a bit of judicious editing and unfortunately, it only makes the 140 mins long film feels even longer.
When the pace finally picks up, characters start making dumb decisions to propel the narration forward. This is nothing new of course but it feels here it was mainly due to the one-take limitation the film-makers placed upon themselves that they end up writing such a contrived and slightly illogical script.
After all, if the right and logical thing to do is to drive as far away as possible from the scene of the crime, the film will just be an hour of our gang driving and driving and driving.... And as I said before, the film is already 140mins long.
Flawed but nevertheless a technically challenging and interesting film.
This review of Victoria (2015) was written by Riccardo N on 13 Apr 2016.
Victoria has generally received very positive reviews.
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