First off - this movie was, technically, almost excellent. The acting was almost totally believable (the exception being young Paul, who was consistently beyond the 6-yo level in comprehension and maturity), the storytelling was wondrous, and the camera work was superb - I never kicked out of the movie to say to myself "Gee - the cameraman or editor is getting tricky here".
The big PITA that struck me first was that the editor (for the DVD, anyway) was remarkably unsympathetic to my old-age hearing problems - far too often, dialog was lost in the overwhelming background music. This would have been more easily forgiven if there had been subtitles available - but there weren't.
Come to think of it, on the DVD, there is no 'special feature' menu, and there's no available trailers from the menu - the trailers are, as far as the DVD menus are concerned, an integral part of the main feature. Kinda annoying.
Anyway, back to the movie. A story of an obsessed mother, and how she got that way, and how obsessed she got, wonderfully told. It's not a movie I'd have willingly missed, but it's not a movie I'd want to see a second time.
The story is beautifully told - but it's not a story I enjoyed, and it's not a story I want to hear again. It'd be a great cautionary tale to some parents I know - but they are, universally, people who won't listen to this story.
Fine work, but I'd love to see this crew work on a more worthwhile project - this one missed the boat, where viewer enjoyment is concerned.
The big PITA that struck me first was that the editor (for the DVD, anyway) was remarkably unsympathetic to my old-age hearing problems - far too often, dialog was lost in the overwhelming background music. This would have been more easily forgiven if there had been subtitles available - but there weren't.
Come to think of it, on the DVD, there is no 'special feature' menu, and there's no available trailers from the menu - the trailers are, as far as the DVD menus are concerned, an integral part of the main feature. Kinda annoying.
Anyway, back to the movie. A story of an obsessed mother, and how she got that way, and how obsessed she got, wonderfully told. It's not a movie I'd have willingly missed, but it's not a movie I'd want to see a second time.
The story is beautifully told - but it's not a story I enjoyed, and it's not a story I want to hear again. It'd be a great cautionary tale to some parents I know - but they are, universally, people who won't listen to this story.
Fine work, but I'd love to see this crew work on a more worthwhile project - this one missed the boat, where viewer enjoyment is concerned.