More screenwriting bravura from Mankiewicz who gives us the story from several sequential points of view, as in All About Eve. The script is acerbic, cynical, sullen, and strained, but full of great lines, lurid characters and some laugh-out-loud preposterousness (I'll give Mankiewicz the benefit of the doubt and assume that was intentional). However, despite the social sparks that fly in every scene that doesn't involve Ava Gardner, the film is laborious right from the off - Bogey's raincoat in the artificial downpour at the cemetery is a continuity nightmare. Much of the film is self-indulgent and overdone, such as the long scene outside Maria's home.
Gardner is a slow actress, wanting space before, during and after every line. In fact, Gardner kills the film almost completely. The life of Maria Vargas is of no interest whatsoever thanks to her rigid and comatose performance - she is quite unable to evoke any of the Carmen or Cinderella spirit that is supposed to be driving her character. The contradictions in the part written for her don't help - on the one hand she is aloof and untouchable and on the other she gives herself to any passing low-life. Virtually everything that happened only served to undermine our emotional attachment to her and it would have taken a very special and spirited performance to keep us caring. Sophia Loren would have done it right and would have been dynamite in this. Sorry Gardner fans, but there it is.
Oscar is the most interesting character in the film - they guy is wound tight and says everything with passion. By the end though, even the moral isn't clear, unless it is that nobody can ever be happy in life. We're left mainly feeling that a lot of sophisticated screen-craft didn't quite hit the spot.
Gardner is a slow actress, wanting space before, during and after every line. In fact, Gardner kills the film almost completely. The life of Maria Vargas is of no interest whatsoever thanks to her rigid and comatose performance - she is quite unable to evoke any of the Carmen or Cinderella spirit that is supposed to be driving her character. The contradictions in the part written for her don't help - on the one hand she is aloof and untouchable and on the other she gives herself to any passing low-life. Virtually everything that happened only served to undermine our emotional attachment to her and it would have taken a very special and spirited performance to keep us caring. Sophia Loren would have done it right and would have been dynamite in this. Sorry Gardner fans, but there it is.
Oscar is the most interesting character in the film - they guy is wound tight and says everything with passion. By the end though, even the moral isn't clear, unless it is that nobody can ever be happy in life. We're left mainly feeling that a lot of sophisticated screen-craft didn't quite hit the spot.