Winter's Tale

For one reason or another, I really wanted to see Winter's Tale. I saw the trailers for it and I thought it was something that was really interesting, creative, and new that I thought would have a lot of fun fantasy elements to it and maybe be a fun ride. I'm a fan of Colin Farrell and Russell Crowe, I like the fantasy elements I saw in the trailer, it definitely seemed like it was worth a watch.

Winter's Tale stars Colin Farrell as Peter Lake. He's an orphan kinda abandoned by his Russian immigrant parents who were denied access to the United States and on their way out, sent him in a small boat back to the States so he could have a chance living there. So abandoned is a bad way to phrase it but yeah.

Anyway, he grows up to become an expert mechanic/ thief and ends up pissing off the wrong people. Namely a gangster by the name of Pearly Soames (played by Russell Crowe). Now here's where things take a little bit of a turn. See Pearly is actually some sort of demon or fallen angel and that's how he runs his mob. He's also pretty much immortal so... there's that. Anyway, Lake finds himself on the run from Pearly and in order to escape, he finds a magical horse who can fly...

Have I lost you?

Now I'm gonna be totally honest, this horse is not explained at all, he's just a horse who can fly. He kinda shows up when its convenient and again, he doesn't make a whole lot of sense. But its a cool visual watching the horse fly.

Anyway, then you've got this woman named Beverly Penn (played by Jessica Brown). She lives with her family, her father, a wealthy newspaper editor (played by William Hurt) and her younger sister Willa.

I'm not sure if its giving too much away but Beverly is dying of consumption. Now I'm not totally sure this movie totally knows what consumption is and I don't think they're totally accurate in their attempts to keep Beverly alive but it makes for a kind of whimsical elements I guess that she has to keep her body temperature down by living outside or else she gets too warm or something.

Have I lost you?

Anyways, before Peter decides to get the hell out of New York... because apparently that's the boundary for Pearly. He decided to rob one last house and it happens to be Beverly's. They meet, they pretty much fall in love at first sight, and from that point on, Peter is smitten with Beverly.

Now Listen...

I'm not opposed to love at first sight stories. I think that if done correctly, they can work really well with the narrative and work for the story. But you have to, first, have the two characters who are falling in love have absolute chemistry from the beginning, and second, I need to believe that they are in love.

I believed that these two loved each other... but it wasn't until half way through the film where they really start to spend time with one another.

There's a point where William Hurt asks Peter what his intentions are for his daughter and Peter just says, I love her terribly. And I was kind of like, woah... when did this happen? Their first interaction, while cute, wasn't exactly convincing that this guy was absolutely in love with Beverly.

Like I said though, the movie does do a better job at convincing me these two are in love later on in the film. I almost wish that the film would have made them develop their relationship as opposed to just chalking it up to love at first sight.

But anyways, a lot of stuff happens after that point and I don't want to get too much into spoiler territory, firstly because I do think this movie is worth seeing if not for just the originality and the visuals, but also because its very hard to explain this movie. There's demons, and miracles, and angels, and magic, and even an element of time travel... sorta. (that's a little misleading saying Time Travel)

Without giving too much away, eventually the movie goes to the present day and Jennifer Connelly is in it.

From the trailers I thought that the segment in the present was going to be a much longer segment but it actually was really only the last half hour of the movie. I understand now why people say this movie stars Colin Farrell and Russell Crowe instead of adding Connelly in it because honestly, she's only in the last act of the film.

I liked the way it went, I just think I would have been interested in seeing this story move into the present a little bit more. I don't know if they didn't because of the book or what, but it was an interesting move. Do I agree with all the decisions made in this movie, especially in the segment set in the present, well no. Without giving too much away, I'll just say... Amnesia... that is all.

One part of the movie that is worth mentioning is a little cameo. I won't say who he plays but Will Smith is oddly enough in this movie.

And listen, I think the part was necessary to the film, I think the character is interesting and I actually would have liked to see more of him, but it was just confusing as Smith doesn't really look like he's actually in the film. Its like they were filming, saw Smith walking by and were like, "Hey Will Smith, you wanna be in our movie?"

Like he really looks like he didn't even have a costume for this film. It really looks like he came off the street, filmed his scenes and walked out, grabbing his paycheck as he went.

Now again, he's not bad in the role. I'm just not totally sure why it was Will Smith and why they didn't give him a costume or make him look like the character he was suppose to play.

It was just... weird.

Anyways... This movie is pretty challenging to explain, one without giving too much away, and two because its a really original and a little difficult to wrap your head around concept. And part of that is because a lot of the fantasy elements are not really explained.

There are always rules that go along with any fantasy piece of fiction. Now you have to be careful when you're writing fantasy in how you explain those rules. Sometimes its easy to just have a giant montage in the beginning and explain all the rules there. But sometimes that's a little bit too on the nose and it doesn't always make for a good movie.

But if you don't explain those rules, the audience can get confused. And that was kind of the case with Winter's Tale. Things like the horse were never really explained and I'm sure they are in the book. The good part about this film is that it has made me want to go out and check out the book. Maybe things will make more sense then. But a movie should be self contained and explainable by itself. And there are times when Winter's Tale isn't that explainable.

Now does that negate from the fact that this is a really interesting and original idea? No. I love the look and feel of this movie. The cinematography was great, again the fantasy elements are interesting and it does make for an interesting, if not confusing story. But that is something the movie struggles with.

Overall, I liked Winter's Tale. I'm the kind of person that likes writing fantasy like this and I draw a lot of inspiration from movies like this. I have to ask myself, did I get more inspiration from the trailer or did I get more inspiration from the movie? I don't know, it might be worth another watch just to get everything from it and not be so confused.

But anyway, I enjoyed Winter's Tale. Its not a perfect movie but its a fantasy romance you could watch with your significant other, or not (in my case) and you'll still have a good time.

The performances were good, the visuals were good, and its very original.

But what do you think? Comment and Discuss below! You can also send me your thoughts on Twitter @cmhaugen24. There you can send me your thoughts on Winter's Tale and other films, and you can also send me request for films I should review in the future. Follow me to get updates on future movie news and reviews.

I'll leave you with this. I've been doing a bad job at getting you guys videos at the end of these posts. This is a little bit of stretch, but think about it this way. Russell Crowe is in this movie. Crowe was also in Les Mis. In that movie he had a really funny death. I like videos from Cracked. Cracked did a video on that very subject. Enjoy!