Review of Winter's Tale (2014) by Orlando O — 23 Jul 2014

A movie with a love story, a hint of angels and demons and a flying horse and trying to reach destiny with a span of 100 years sounds like promising premise. Winters Tale is a complete mess, no developed characters, and writer director Akiva Goldsman felt like he highlighted all the cliff notes to the novel in order to make the movie.

It is a supernatural drama about a young lost guy Peter Lake (Colin Farrell) in 1916, he is a thief taught by Pearly (Russell Crowe) a demon disguised as a gangster. Peter breaks into a mansion to steal for his getaway until he meets Beverly (Jessica Brown Findlay). Beverly is dying by consumption and has to be kept in cold temperatures in order to keep her fever down. Peter falls for Beverly until Pearly comes in a conflict between them.

It has a great cast Colin Farrell and Jessica Brown Findlay had perfect chemistry together. Russell Crowe was decent as he ruffles his dialogue. There is a surprising cameo without giving much away about the plot. The plot was convoluted with lack of screen time for the story to even be developed. It jumps from one set piece to another; we see Peter Lake and Beverly falling in love, then minutes later Peter is fighting with Pearly then passing 100 years later to modern time. The movie could have had potential if it was better handled with a different screenwriter. It never spent time with any characters to even see them develop on screen.

Winters Tale looked rushed, and a disappointment for such an interesting premise. The visual effects were rather cheesy, when you see a flying horse. The movie has great talent but it was lacking by terrible screenwriting and an unmotivated direction.