First, what I liked: The cinematography was stunning, and the the art direction created a realistic depiction of a war I really know very little about. Also, Olga Kurylenko was beautiful in a key role.
Now, what was frustrating (all of which has already been mentioned in other reviews): The biggest problem was the very weak link between the two divergent story lines of Manolo and Josémaría. Both of their stories (one fictional, the other fact-based) were compelling, but neither were allowed enough screen time to fully develop; in fact, I got the feeling that a lot of 'connective tissue' was left on the cutting room floor. (The DVD contains numerous deleted scenes that attest to this, although they seem as disjointed as everything else...) Added to the semi-present-day story of Manolo's son, this all created a disappointingly schizophrenic storyline. In the end, although I would have loved to know more of Josémaría's history, he felt like a gratuitous plot device, only there to force father and son to reconnect, and the time taken to tell his story just took time away from the others.
Additionally, I felt that the acting was made incidental by Joffe to the story he wanted to tell, and consequently it wasn't very good. There were obvious attempts by the actors to show different facets of their characters, but in this case 'obvious' is not a compliment, and it's too bad their director didn't demand more. In addition, I thought much of the script/dialog was trite and forced - just one more reason I had a hard time connecting to the characters.
Finally, it just drove me crazy that there was no consistency with regard to the use of Spanish - most times things were written in English, but sometimes not, and the accents were all over the place. I can't help feeling that this would have been much better si se hubiera hecho completamente en castellano.
Again, I really wanted to like it, but I just can't say that I did.
Now, what was frustrating (all of which has already been mentioned in other reviews): The biggest problem was the very weak link between the two divergent story lines of Manolo and Josémaría. Both of their stories (one fictional, the other fact-based) were compelling, but neither were allowed enough screen time to fully develop; in fact, I got the feeling that a lot of 'connective tissue' was left on the cutting room floor. (The DVD contains numerous deleted scenes that attest to this, although they seem as disjointed as everything else...) Added to the semi-present-day story of Manolo's son, this all created a disappointingly schizophrenic storyline. In the end, although I would have loved to know more of Josémaría's history, he felt like a gratuitous plot device, only there to force father and son to reconnect, and the time taken to tell his story just took time away from the others.
Additionally, I felt that the acting was made incidental by Joffe to the story he wanted to tell, and consequently it wasn't very good. There were obvious attempts by the actors to show different facets of their characters, but in this case 'obvious' is not a compliment, and it's too bad their director didn't demand more. In addition, I thought much of the script/dialog was trite and forced - just one more reason I had a hard time connecting to the characters.
Finally, it just drove me crazy that there was no consistency with regard to the use of Spanish - most times things were written in English, but sometimes not, and the accents were all over the place. I can't help feeling that this would have been much better si se hubiera hecho completamente en castellano.
Again, I really wanted to like it, but I just can't say that I did.