Colin Farrell is an excellent actor.
One of the most bankable actors around, for me. Which is one of the reasons I felt so betrayed by "Sacred Deer".
I usually resent the words "pretentious" or "arthouse" used disparagingly to refer to movies. It tends to come from a place of intellectual laziness and low brow triumphalism.
I don't know that I'd apply the words to this film either. I think there's an idea here, and a failure of execution. It's meant to be some sort of psychological, existential horror, except the concept is so razor thin, they could not deliver a 2 hour movie. I reckon if it was maybe 80 minutes, it could have been somewhat enjoyable. But it just drags and drags.
Well I think that, that is the nail on the head there friend.
It feels to me like some kind of morality tale gone wrong - almost Aessopy?
But it has no depth, no charm or no character... it is very stylish and is like one of those 80s movies that you get because of the cool name and front cover.
For me, that is what is so pretentious about it - it is a pretentious film pretending to be pretentious - I have no problems at all with pretentiousness; I am, and have been labelled many times, as a pretentious twat of the highest order... I know I am, I can't help it... but it is who I am... like my Dad and Uncle. But I'm the first to admit it and regardless of everything else, it goes with the field of work that I'm in, or was in, or want to be in. Point being, I'm pretentious by nature and don't pretend to be pretentious.
And to solidify that fact, I will say pretentious one more time.
But this film is like one of those people who try to be pretentious to be seen as being pretentious - we all know one... and I think that this is perfectly exemplified by the final scene. As decent a scene as it is, it is literally there to act as a resolution, but adds or resolves literally nothing at all that has happened in the previous 90 minutes - it is there to add fake depth and that really, really pissed me off.
With regards to arthousism - I say again, it feels like some kind of morality tale gone wrong... it is as if there is some big statement there that the writer has tried to hint at, without actually having the balls to just say it loud and clear. This has been done immaculately with other films like The Shining (was the genocidal extermination of Native Americans as barbaric and meticulous as the Holocaust), Bladerunner (Are humans really sentient naturally occurring beings?) and The Wicker Man (the destruction of indigenous spirituality at the hands of organised religion). But this film is seriously fannying about the bush trying to get you to do more than half of the job for it, while flexing its visual muscles for visuals sake.
Grrrr... film pissed me off so much!
But aye, Colin Farrell has grown on me of late, he has really matured into an excellent actor by all accounts. Always good to see a boy from the old country do well in the U.S.
