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- 2014
- PG-13
- Warner Bros.
- 1 h 58 m
- 2014
- PG-13
- Warner Bros.
- 1 h 58 m
Summary Set in a mythic New York City and spanning more than a century, Winter's Tale is a story of miracles, crossed destinies, and the age-old battle between good and evil.
Directed By: Akiva Goldsman
Written By: Mark Helprin, Akiva Goldsman
- 2014
- PG-13
- Warner Bros.
- 1 h 58 m
- 2014
- PG-13
- Warner Bros.
- 1 h 58 m
Winter's Tale
31
5.2
Where to Watch
Summary Set in a mythic New York City and spanning more than a century, Winter's Tale is a story of miracles, crossed destinies, and the age-old battle between good and evil.
Directed By: Akiva Goldsman
Written By: Mark Helprin, Akiva Goldsman
Where to Watch
Top Cast
Metascore
Generally Unfavorable
Based on 35 Critic Reviews
31
3% Positive
1 Review
1 Review
49% Mixed
17 Reviews
17 Reviews
49% Negative
17 Reviews
17 Reviews
Metascore
Generally Unfavorable
Based on 35 Critic Reviews
31
3% Positive
1 Review
1 Review
49% Mixed
17 Reviews
17 Reviews
49% Negative
17 Reviews
17 Reviews
It is partly a failure, but mostly it succeeds, and the film's aspiration is so enormous that that's enough for a moving experience.
Lurching back and forth through time, Winter's Tale tries to blend the supernatural and the sentimental, with a synchronous nod to elements of New York history. But this would-be magical romance flounders, hitting only dissonant chords.
User Score
Mixed or Average
Based on 94 User Ratings
5.2
38% Positive
36 Ratings
36 Ratings
23% Mixed
22 Ratings
22 Ratings
38% Negative
36 Ratings
36 Ratings
User Score
Mixed or Average
Based on 94 User Ratings
5.2
38% Positive
36 Ratings
36 Ratings
23% Mixed
22 Ratings
22 Ratings
38% Negative
36 Ratings
36 Ratings
Never fails to make me cry, the fantasy works for me, the man who steals into the house ****, as she steals his heart with a smile - the fragility of love, that rarest of flowers, shining with the rarest of beauty, which life offers, but no one sees, because we are all too busy plotting and scheming, thieving and robbing to see it. The thief, whose given up life as a gangster, and the girl whose given up life as a debutant, stumble into each other , and love shines because, suddenly, there are no barriers there to stop it, and in that moment, love breaks through the dark machinery of power, creates a rift in space and time which breaks the hold of the powers of darkness over the tides of men’s hearts, giving them hope in the redeeming force of love to bring us together despite the dark cruelty of the power-wielding forces in life.
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I'm honestly not quite sure what people were expecting when they watched this movie and as a result gave it such poor ratings. I had never read the book, so I had no expectations. Thus, I found the film wonderful. It was a fantastic movie of a modern fairy tale with magic and slight thread of good versus evil.
None of the performances felt forced, even if Crowe's Pearly Soames chewed the scenery a bit, I think that was part of the charm to have a villain that's a bit over the top.
I loved the mythology presented, and the simple ways it interacts with the characters. It's not overpowering or intrusive, it's just part of the story, the fabric of the tapestry they are all in.
Lighten up, folks. It was a good movie. Just enjoy it.
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It's no coincidence that Winter's Tale is being released on Valentine's Day, when our resistance to schmaltz is at its weakest. But do that special someone in your life a favor and splurge on some flowers and a nice heart-shaped Russell Stover box instead.
It’s a greeting card of film, full of platitudes and pleasant imagery, and destined to be thrown in a drawer and forgotten in short order.
It is sincerely, painstakingly and astonishingly awful.
A thin line separates the magical from the preposterous, and by insisting so strenuously on its own magic, Winter’s Tale pitches helplessly into earnest ridiculousness.
The entire movie feels belabored, lumbering from one awful, over-dressed set piece to another. It's wrongheaded, it's horrendous, it's filled with lines of dialogue that are utter howlers, and yet, it's the type of movie that feels so confident that it really is something. It is, in fact, not.
If you are well educated in the realm of mythology and don't HAVE to have the laws of a mystical system explained to you like a ten year old then this movie will definitely appeal to you. With an all star cast this movie was all I expected and more. Honestly, I went to see this movie based on the advice of one of my very favorite writers, Neil Gaiman, and was not disappointed in the least. It's sad to find out the movie did so poorly at the box office. Unfortunately, main stream movie goers won't have the patience or intellect to enjoy this film. As such, it is destined to become a cult classic if the few of us who appreciated it manage to tell our friends and family.
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Don't over think this film it is outlandish but the romance is well worth your time. It's all about the great chemistry between the two leads that works. The current day storyline could have been dropped shaving about 30 minutes off the run time, but the film is solid nonetheless. B-
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I'm another person who saw the movie and did not read the book or never heard of it. In fact, I don't even know if it was translated to my mother tongue. But I liked the movie. He has an implicit idea that love is a magical feeling that overcomes barriers. We can find it in literature and almost all poetry, where impossible lovers abound, with more or less tragic consequences. So the idea of this film is not new, but almost always works well in movies. Therefore, I think the script is good, although its far from being brilliant.
The major flaw of the script is that those, who don't know anything about the movie and start watching it, will thing, in the first minutes, which is seeing a period drama. These audiences will feel very confused at the sudden revelation of fantastic elements, something that they probably would not be waiting because the film was not immediately clear about that. I felt it the first time I saw, and I just really enjoyed it in the second time I saw it.
The main roles are embodied by Colin Farrell (as the good guy, Peter Lake), Jessica Brown Findlay (in the role of the young, rich and sick Beverly Penn) and Russell Crowe (as the evil Perly Soames). Will Smith also makes a small but important role, as the Judge, in a clear reference to the Devil. About the actors work, I think it was regular. The biggest applause goes to Crowe, who did a convincing job as a villain. Jessica Findlay never seemed me passionate enough, her character is almost as cold as the ice of winter scenery. She looked like a rich girl who want to escape her gilded cage and enjoy an adventure. Farrell, in turn, despite seemed more passionate, failed in interpretation. It seemed too kind to be a thief in search of redemption through love, and his acting was theatrical and inauthentic.
Anyway, the film is quite reasonable. Far from brilliance, it entertains the audience and bring us a beautiful love story in a fantasy film that, in a counter to gender itself, dispenses with most of the special effects to privilege the story. Not everything is good in this movie, but it's not necessarily a bad film.
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'Winter's Tale' was a movie you can imagine I was pretty excited for, a fantasy love story on Valentine's Day. Plus, the trailers and the poster made it look very interesting, and it had a pretty respectable cast.
This movie was not at all what I expected.
'Winter's Tale' is a sometimes confused, oddly paced and strangely structured picture that feels like you are watching two different movies at once. Certain scenes of character development seem a little rushed, and you want to get yourself invested, but for some reason, this movie pushes you further and further away.
Colin Farrell plays a man named Peter Lake who, as a child, was sent away on a boat. As an adult, he spends most of his life stealing and hiding from a man who is after him named Pearly (an over the top Russell Crowe). Peter ends up just coming across some white horse that appears to be magical, as it can fly and disappear when it chooses to do so.
During his journey, he comes across a young girl named Beverly (Jessica Brown Findlay) who appears to be dying, and he feels as if it's his job to look after her, and make her better. They instantly fall in love, but it feels very abrupt that they feel this **** moment she is supposed to be scared of him, the next, they are just instantly into each other.
Pearly finds out about this, and tries all he can to stop Lake in his tracks. Russell Crowe's thick Irish accent makes it hard to take him seriously, and he overacts to the point where it feels like a parody of the book that this was adapted from.
The dialogue here is a little corny as well, "****...impossibly beautiful" so says Peter as he looks deeper into Beverly's eyes. "Stop, or I'll melt all the snow I am standing on" answers Beverly and Peter then says "Give me a chance and you'll melt all the snow in the world". This dialogue is not quite as terrible as the ones you hear in 'Star Wars: Attack of the Clones' (2002), but it could've gone down that route.
The second half of the movie takes place almost 100 years later in present day, and Peter seems to have no memory of what's happened to him, he cannot even remember his own identity. But he feels like he has some unfinished business, hence why he is still alive, and **** somehow is also in present day, knows about this, and still is intent to try and stop him.
The movie is the directorial debut of Akiva Goldsman, who also wrote 'A Beautiful Mind' (2001), and 'Cinderella Man' (2005), but also wrote 'Batman & Robin' (1997) and 'Lost In Space' (1998). For a director, he has the right visual tone as to how this movie should look, the cinematography by Caleb Deschanel is inspired also. It's just, maybe Goldsman should've hired some other writers to write the screenplay where it feels less rushed and less corny from time to time.
I did find myself rooting for Farrell's character, but ultimately, everybody else in this movie seemed like an exaggeration of whatever it is they are supposed to represent. Jessica Brown Findlay, while she is a good actress, seems almost lifeless in the role, and I know, she is supposed to be playing a dying girl. I've also mentioned how over the top Russell Crowe is, so we can leave it at that.
'Winter's Tale' is a well-meaning, but ultimately forgettable and sometimes bland effort.
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I lost count of the times I’ve seen "love" and "destiny" going together in a Hollywood film. The two concepts are often forcedly connected, and perhaps this is the first reason that makes Winter's Tale (released in the United Kingdom as A New York Winter's Tale) a complete disappointment. The film is adapted from a 1983 book written by novelist, journalist and conservative commentator Mark Helprin: a tale of considerable success, which gained a large number of admirers over the years. Its fame could explain why so many stars got involved in the project, turning the film into a showcase of well-known faces: Colin Farrell, Russell Crowe, Jennifer Connelly, Will Smith, William Hurt. Even Martin Scorsese was rumored to have shown interest. Unfortunately, it takes more than good intentions and a slew of celebrities to guarantee quality.
A New York Winter's Tale wants us to think that our destinies are all entwined, like the stars in the sky. In 1915’s New York, thief Peter Lake (Colin Farrell) flees from his mortal enemy, the evil Pearly Soames (Crowe). He only escapes thanks to the appeareance of a white horse, whose supernatural nature is portrayed with a ridiculous amount of glare on the screen. The plot unfolds, leading Peter to meet beautiful Beverly Penn (Jessica Brown Findlay), a deathly ill but cheerful heiress, whom he irrevocably falls in love with after she cracks half a smile and blinks a couple of times. Is he the miracle she was waiting for? Will their love be enough to defeat death? Their purity will clash with the viciousness surrounding Soames’s gang, secretly at the service of Lucifer (a very awkward Will Smith, whose interludes with Crowe are often source of embarrassment). Peter and Beverly, instead, are the obvious personification of Good; after all, he’s the handsome knight on a white horse. This game of metaphors runs parallel to the agonising love story, always hinting at the existence **** plan that shapes everyone’s destiny. However, the masterplan only works as a good ol’ deus-ex-machina, designed specifically for the protagonists. Even when the setting magically changes to today’s New York, and the film drops the cheesy trash of the first half to pick up a livelier pace, it still fails to address its main themes with credibility and coherence.
A New York Winter's Tale’s many flaws are all direct results of its poor screenplay (written by first-time director Akiva Goldsman), and a chaotic, at times ludicrous structure. The vagueness and silliness of the supernatural element is the final straw in a story packed with preconceptions about love and sacrifice; the script too often belittles profound themes and concepts, labelling them as mere manifestations of "magic" and "miracle". The magic of the right man in the right place. The miracle of life. If there's a magic connection that links us all, in an inexplicable and immense network, I very much doubt its sole purpose is to get you a cute boyfriend. Even so, many in the audience were genuinely moved at the end of the film, showing that, despite it all, it hits its specific target of hopeless romantics. If this doesn’t sound like you, steer clear.
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Production Company
Village Roadshow Pictures,
Warner Bros.,
Weed Road Pictures
Release Date Feb 14, 2014
Duration 1 h 58 m
Rating PG-13
Tagline This is not a true story. This is true love.
Awards
Golden Trailer Awards
• 1 Nomination
Hollywood Makeup Artist and Hair Stylist Guild Awards
• 1 Nomination
