I'm actually rather blase about it all, refusing to give it much thought, simply because by the time it was over I really didn't care about it that much to waste more time on it than I already had. It's a rather bizarre film, crude where it didn't need to be and violent for the sake of just being nasty. Tom Hollanderplays the epitome of the total man/child, the dictator of an unnamed country, the son of a long dead beloved dictator, and married to an Eva Peron wanna be (Lara Flynn Boyle) who whispers conspiracies into his ear to keep him under her control, obviously only because she knows that if he loses power, she's toast. He spends more time coming up with dumb ideas for movies (as he runs the nation's film industry as well), probably influenced by the cartoons he watches (the worst ones ever made) than thinking of his people, and he probably controls the media too as they are even more insipid than real life journalists, if that's possible.
The film also deals with an esteemed playwright Donald Sutherland, who is in prison, guarded by Ralph Fuentes, for allegedly having upset the government, suddenly released and given a position in parliament. The good cast can't help the often confusing script that had me torn between identifying certain scenes as part of the real plot or a play within the script. What appears to be a staged view of a coup is acted out so badly that I started to hope that just was the end of the film even though it was only an hour into it. The metaphor involving the elephants only shows a ridiculous pretentiousness of this film. I rank this higher than I felt I should have only because of the unique ideas and often beautiful photography. But I felt it was a big waste of 2 hours, unfortunately confirming my speculation that many modern cinema writers are trying to prove themselves smarter than their audience, fooling no one but themselves.
The film also deals with an esteemed playwright Donald Sutherland, who is in prison, guarded by Ralph Fuentes, for allegedly having upset the government, suddenly released and given a position in parliament. The good cast can't help the often confusing script that had me torn between identifying certain scenes as part of the real plot or a play within the script. What appears to be a staged view of a coup is acted out so badly that I started to hope that just was the end of the film even though it was only an hour into it. The metaphor involving the elephants only shows a ridiculous pretentiousness of this film. I rank this higher than I felt I should have only because of the unique ideas and often beautiful photography. But I felt it was a big waste of 2 hours, unfortunately confirming my speculation that many modern cinema writers are trying to prove themselves smarter than their audience, fooling no one but themselves.