The obvious attraction for a casual viewer would be the poignant love story. The writer cleverly mixes the rare attachment of two individuals, a sailor's son turned boat-maker and a beautiful, sensitive artist: an attachment of the boat-maker that that does not diminish after the death of the artist. Such strong feelings have been the core of great cinema in the past (Truffaut's "Story of Adele H", Polanski's adaptation of Hardy's "Tess," etc.). The film may pale in comparison to Truffaut and Polanski, yet the subject matter, the performances (Newman, Penn, Kostner, and Coltraine), and photography make it noteworthy.
Mexico-born director Luis Mandoki loves to film stories with strong attractions and unusual bonding ("Angel Eyes" is an example) and attract the viewer to the cinematic work by providing all-round positive connotations to the material. If you examine the film closely all characters are positive and uplifting--the varied personalities in the newspaper office, a supportive father (a well-defined father-son relationship), a strong bonding among the family of the dead artist that gradually transforms from the negative to the positive, a male child who accepts a strange new father figure without a whimper...The only negative characters shown almost as a cameo is the journalist's ex-husband who cheated on her. Mandoki seems to make a habit of picking up uplifting, candy-floss subjects. Is he playing safe or is it a Catholic upbringing (reference to "Angel Eyes") at work? As a director's decision, the storm sequence filmed entirely with music and no words raised the film above the usual films.
Mandoki as a director has potential to make great works but is evidently not a director who works to get his details right. He has filmed at locations that do not resemble the Carolinas. Yet Mandoki has a rare ability: he always picks top-notch cinematographers (Oscar nominated Caleb Deschanel here and late Piotr Sobocinsky in "Angel Eyes"). Most viewers would love the picture-postcard locations captured in the film. But I was captivated by the indoor camera-work playing intelligently with light and shadows reminding one of works like "Godfather II." For some quaint reason Mandoki's films seem to attract Razzie awards for bad acting (Jennifer Lopez in "Angel Eyes" and Kevin Kostner in this one). In both cases, I feel Mandoki did extract fabulous performances from other actors (Jim Caviezel in "Angel Eyes" and Paul Newman in this one). Perhaps the bad performances have something to do with whether an actor controls the production rather than Mandoki abilities as the director.
On the whole, the film will be remembered not merely as a great love story well told but for Paul Newman's fine performance and the intelligent indoor photography.
Mexico-born director Luis Mandoki loves to film stories with strong attractions and unusual bonding ("Angel Eyes" is an example) and attract the viewer to the cinematic work by providing all-round positive connotations to the material. If you examine the film closely all characters are positive and uplifting--the varied personalities in the newspaper office, a supportive father (a well-defined father-son relationship), a strong bonding among the family of the dead artist that gradually transforms from the negative to the positive, a male child who accepts a strange new father figure without a whimper...The only negative characters shown almost as a cameo is the journalist's ex-husband who cheated on her. Mandoki seems to make a habit of picking up uplifting, candy-floss subjects. Is he playing safe or is it a Catholic upbringing (reference to "Angel Eyes") at work? As a director's decision, the storm sequence filmed entirely with music and no words raised the film above the usual films.
Mandoki as a director has potential to make great works but is evidently not a director who works to get his details right. He has filmed at locations that do not resemble the Carolinas. Yet Mandoki has a rare ability: he always picks top-notch cinematographers (Oscar nominated Caleb Deschanel here and late Piotr Sobocinsky in "Angel Eyes"). Most viewers would love the picture-postcard locations captured in the film. But I was captivated by the indoor camera-work playing intelligently with light and shadows reminding one of works like "Godfather II." For some quaint reason Mandoki's films seem to attract Razzie awards for bad acting (Jennifer Lopez in "Angel Eyes" and Kevin Kostner in this one). In both cases, I feel Mandoki did extract fabulous performances from other actors (Jim Caviezel in "Angel Eyes" and Paul Newman in this one). Perhaps the bad performances have something to do with whether an actor controls the production rather than Mandoki abilities as the director.
On the whole, the film will be remembered not merely as a great love story well told but for Paul Newman's fine performance and the intelligent indoor photography.