Films/DVD Asylum

Posted by tunenut (A) on March 26, 2007 at 13:21:24

in that it is a would-be epic that spans decades, yet does not achieve epic status.

As with Good Shepherd, the decision was made that the characters need not age. Thus, the father looks substantially identical as a young man first meeting his wife and after his son is a working architect. This is obviously not an oversight, it was a choice, but for me, an unfortunate choice. Suspension of disbelief has its limits.

Due to the very long time period, this movie feels almost like time lapse photography. In one moment, the son has long hair, smoking pot at his graduation, in virtually the next, his hair is shorter and he is ordering single malt. At the Taj Mahal, he decides on architecture as his career choice, in a few minutes he is an architect. Etc. There is just far too much family history covered to be anything other than perfunctory. Weddings, funerals, graduations, births, fly by.

There are moments of real emotion here, events to which everyone can relate. But this is far too ambitious for its 2 hour running time.