Review of Winter's Tale (2014) by Tiffany B — 03 Sep 2014

Winter's Tale has all the ingredients for a transportive story.

There is a fight between good and evil, a struggle between a demon and a miracle and a story spanning close to 100 years. Despite these themes the film falls short and is not the mesmerizing enchantment it aspires to be.

Adapted from Mark Helprin's book of the same name, Winter's Tale is a story about true love set in a familiar but mythical early 20th century New York City. Peter Lake, played by Colin Farrell in the film adaptation, is an Irishman, a mechanic and a burglar. We start the film with Peter running away from a formidable looking gangster named Pearly, played by Russell Crowe. Cornered and in mortal danger, he comes upon an ethereal looking white horse, who promptly saves Peter by jumping over a 15 foot fence. Clearly this is no ordinary horse nor is this the New York City known by audiences. With his magical horse in tow, Peter burgles homes uptown and stumbles upon a raven haired beauty named Beverly while casing her grand abode. It is transfixing love between Peter and Beverly though it is not secure as she is deathly sick. Pearly intensifies his hunt for Peter and focuses his energy on Beverly. What transpires is a vivid and supernatural tale of true love, time travel, and life saving miracles.

Not having read the tale prior to discovering and watching the movie, I was confused throughout. While a fable of such magical undercurrents should have some mystery there is minimal explanation to truly understand the motivation behind the plot. Most of the film does not even feel fantastical and is quite authentic to early nineteen hundred New York; with the exception of a demonic Pearly and talk of the white horse with diaphanous wings being a miracle. Winter's Tale as a film adaptation is the product of writer, producer and director of Akiva Goldsman and seems as though much of the intrigue to the imaginative world was hacked out for simplicity's sake.

The little explanation we as an audience have is that there is true, time ebbing, love between Peter and Beverly. This love compels Peter to inexplicably travel forward through time, unharmed and unchanged, obliged by an internal allegiance toward saving her. There is little spark or chemistry between Farrell and Findlay, and unfortunately believing fated true love exists is dependent upon inherent chemistry.

Deep within the movie there seems to be a beautiful magnificent and fantastical fable that's been swindled from me. Instead I get a superficial telling of an alleged mythical narrative with no connection, no explanation and no significance.