Z/Web

Though this was the big Oscar winner this year, I wasn’t that excited about it. The silent movie aspect seemed like a gimmick and the plot about an aging silent star and an upcoming ingenue is as old as movies. But I was curious and though I right about much of the film, it is very well done.

The film’s biggest flaw is that the first third is too slow. The plot for that part of the film is obvious within seconds and yet each piece takes many minutes to tell. The silent aspect doesn’t help with the boredom. But once you get closer to the middle of the film, the action picks up with more happening and it all builds to an excellent conclusion. I enjoyed the last thirty minutes very much.

Overall the film is very well done. The performances are really excellent. But my gripe is that ultimately the film doesn’t reveal much about the silent film industry that is its topic. It is shallow. That means this film’s silentness is little more than a gimmick and there were several places where it was a terrible mistake. For instance, in the key scene — and this isn’t much of a spoiler — where a sound movie is played as a demonstration of the future, we don’t hear the sound. I was very confused and didn’t even realize until very late in the scene that the movie they were watching was supposed to have sound. That was a baffling decision to me and reeks of wanting to push the silent gimmick beyond all reason.

One of the things I find fascinating about silent versus sound films is the differences in storytelling. I had expected that to be demonstrated in this film. Unfortunately, other than one hint (where silent actors are said to be “mugging” for the camera — basically exaggerated acting to convey the story better) the film does little to express this key aspect. Since the film’s plot is about an older silent film star struggling to make the transition to sound, you’d have thought those differences would have been explored. That’s another area were the judicious use of sound would have made a huge difference: the director could have shown us silent scenes and sound scenes and the contrast would have been powerful and amazing. Instead everything is silent except for one key scene in the middle and the very last scene. Again, the silent gimmick is just carried too far.

It’s still a good film, and I liked it better than I expected, but it definitely has some core flaws. I don’t think it deserved a Best Picture Oscar by any stretch. It’s just a gimmicky film and in ten years we’ll look back at it and wonder why it won.