Completely bonkers but utterly captivating!

★★★★★

And now for something a little longer…

For anyone who follows the blog, you’ll know that I saw this as a test screening back in May (and a little confused to find that the picture won’t be released in the UK until March 2013!) and so my slightly longer ramble here is based solely on that screening as I was not present for its festival premier. Having, at the time, not read David Mitchell’s source novel, but understood it to be based on sweeping, mixed genre material I very much anticipated seeing something unusual. It really is like nothing else I have seen and afterwards I spoke of the screening confidentially to a few friends. My overriding sentiment was that “it’s not for everyone”. By that I meant that people really are going to love it or hate it. And I’ve read a few reviews this morning and found this to be already accurate. The Guardian didn’t seem to like it much (but when do they ever?), whereas Collider seemed to love it. And there’s plenty of other mixed reviews out there so go take a look. But don’t let the negatives put you off seeing it. I let the film completely swallow me up and although I can agree with certain negative comments (the make-up does look botched at times), some leave me baffled. One element that seems to have confounded some reviewers was why they used the same actors across different roles when it wasn’t necessary? My answer… why the f*** not? The editing of such a picture is of the absolute highest standard, the inter-cutting of the different stories, with narration of one story over pictures of the other kept me glued and excited at the possibilities in mainstream cinema. This may be an independent production, but it feels mainstream trying something new that isn’t a f***ing gimmick (I’m looking at you 3D!.. or you 48fps!)… so enjoy the movie… or not, it’s up to you.