It must be a good minute or more into this film before we have any dialogue and really it is a long minute. We see people walking through Bethesda terrace arches in central park, stepping in puddles perhaps, and this goes on for a while before we focus in on an old man who appears to be homeless sitting up to the side of it. He has an old photograph in a small locket and he gazes at it with sadness before beginning the sonnet. This opening is not only much longer than it needs to be, but it is also delivered with a heavier tone than it needs to be too.
The suggestion is that the woman in the picture is long gone from the man's immediate life – it isn't said but I assume she is dead. This is a very engaging and quite moving interpretation and not one I had thought of myself during my readings. It added a lot to the words for me, really giving them an emotion and tone that I didn't see for myself. I liked it for this even if the actual delivery is not all I would have liked. There were a few too many moments of messing with the camera (time-lapse or slow-mo) where really I would have preferred to stay close to Vincent to see him perform this character and the life behind the words.
It did still work though, because the idea is good in how well it connects and contextualizes the words, I just found the delivery too be a bit too somber and then in other ways to be distracting.
The suggestion is that the woman in the picture is long gone from the man's immediate life – it isn't said but I assume she is dead. This is a very engaging and quite moving interpretation and not one I had thought of myself during my readings. It added a lot to the words for me, really giving them an emotion and tone that I didn't see for myself. I liked it for this even if the actual delivery is not all I would have liked. There were a few too many moments of messing with the camera (time-lapse or slow-mo) where really I would have preferred to stay close to Vincent to see him perform this character and the life behind the words.
It did still work though, because the idea is good in how well it connects and contextualizes the words, I just found the delivery too be a bit too somber and then in other ways to be distracting.