This movie is ideally a romance/mystery type movie for the soft of heart, and it does what it intends to do very well. If you're the type of person who needs a lot of sappy, heart-to-heart, weepy romance films in your life, then this movie is definitely one you should check out, because it's actually a very good weepy romance movie. The love-square that erupts through the course of the film is a complex one, but it doesn't feel fake or contrived, so they get points for that. Director Paul McGuigan is certainly intriguing in his methods here; choosing to tell the story in a half-Memento-esquire enigma, veering back and forth between flashbacks and the present day. It's initially extremely confusing, but you get the hang of it about halfway through and realized what has been going on. Very cool style of directing, and it would work a lot better with a five-star film.
If I had to pick at something, it would be the fact that this film is absurdly pretentious and showy, with little reason for it to be such. The minute I saw the words 'film noir' written on the back of the DVD box, I figured there would probably be some level of self-gratification somewhere in this movie, and I was right. It's not necessarily a detractor, and it might seem odd to some people, but Wicker Park carries with it a 6 inch thick sterile, polished gloss over everything else. This movie really wants to impress you, and it really wants to show you how cool it can be with the stylized and pompous style of storytelling and the overly dramatic and emotional performances, but it just doesn't work for me that well, not like it tries to.
There are several plot-holes, as well, and that certainly doesn't help much. This is a confusing movie, and even though most of it makes sense by the end of the film, some things are just left as dead ends. For instance, what of this "Daniel" character? I don't think that was ever revealed, even though his name was mentioned several times throughout the film in different contexts (Lisa's ex-boyfriend, then someone she needs to call, and also Alex/Lisa's stalker?). They could've just left his name out of the movie, but in the typical Memento fashion (though botched here), they left it open-ended and confusing as hell. Also, the number of coincidental ways our two lovers never meet up is staggeringly high, and one is left wondering how it was so hard for the two of them to find each other in a modern day world of computers, email, and cellular phones. I could go on and on, but the plot-holes here make the movie far more time-consuming than it should be.
But overall, if you're not a critical person, and you just want a good romance/thriller type flick to curl up on the couch for on a lazy winter evening, then this is a good pick. It's not the most solid film, and it definitely relies on style more than substance to create it's palette of ideas and emotions, but it's interesting and nothing too bad at all. Recommended if you think this is your thing.
If I had to pick at something, it would be the fact that this film is absurdly pretentious and showy, with little reason for it to be such. The minute I saw the words 'film noir' written on the back of the DVD box, I figured there would probably be some level of self-gratification somewhere in this movie, and I was right. It's not necessarily a detractor, and it might seem odd to some people, but Wicker Park carries with it a 6 inch thick sterile, polished gloss over everything else. This movie really wants to impress you, and it really wants to show you how cool it can be with the stylized and pompous style of storytelling and the overly dramatic and emotional performances, but it just doesn't work for me that well, not like it tries to.
There are several plot-holes, as well, and that certainly doesn't help much. This is a confusing movie, and even though most of it makes sense by the end of the film, some things are just left as dead ends. For instance, what of this "Daniel" character? I don't think that was ever revealed, even though his name was mentioned several times throughout the film in different contexts (Lisa's ex-boyfriend, then someone she needs to call, and also Alex/Lisa's stalker?). They could've just left his name out of the movie, but in the typical Memento fashion (though botched here), they left it open-ended and confusing as hell. Also, the number of coincidental ways our two lovers never meet up is staggeringly high, and one is left wondering how it was so hard for the two of them to find each other in a modern day world of computers, email, and cellular phones. I could go on and on, but the plot-holes here make the movie far more time-consuming than it should be.
But overall, if you're not a critical person, and you just want a good romance/thriller type flick to curl up on the couch for on a lazy winter evening, then this is a good pick. It's not the most solid film, and it definitely relies on style more than substance to create it's palette of ideas and emotions, but it's interesting and nothing too bad at all. Recommended if you think this is your thing.