"Remember Red, hope is a good thing, maybe the best of things, and no good thing ever dies."
Finally! I don't no why it took me so long to see one of the most acclaimed films of all time. The Shawshank Redemption really moved me.
The emotion that was put into it, was something really truthful and real. Even when there are moments where you predict what is going to happen next, its subtleness and immense depth affects you anyway. Since the very first moment, we are attached to it and not many films do that with the audience. Such a simple story but with such content.
Frank Darabont direction was amazing! The film has over two hours and you never get bored, you are driven by the emotion of the events and the great cinematography makes you feel the terrifying life in prison.
The performances from all the cast are something great to see but Morgan Freeman and Tim Robbins are the ones who gave absolutely phenomenal performances. The performances of a lifetime.
I can see why many people love this film. They love it because is power makes it unforgettable. Now I love it too, and I will always remember it.
An absolutely beautiful story about hope and friendship.
With all the great reviews I suspected a hidden jewel, and it kinda was. However it annoyed me a lot.
Especially the dialog was extremely hectic and kind of retarded in the first 30 minutes. It got a bit better after that, but never really good. The actions and decisions were of people that just did not think, something that doesn't fit in a movie with a smart setting like multiverses. imho it only fits with comedy and some exceptions here and there, but that's just me.
One of the flaws that showed itself a couple of times was the time flow. Time is not really consequent throughout the whole movie. In 1 scene someone drinks up a bottle of wine within a minute, and on a few occasions people were gone for a longer period of time (10-20min) while in the house itself no more than 5 minutes were passed at best. This could be explained by the major plot twist in the end, but it would be nice if there were made 1 or 2 remarks about it if that was the case.
The movie is also not giving the viewer time to make their own construction of the situation but making a few emotional scenes right after an info-dump and repeating this process.
And when the characters finally start to understand how complex the situation could be, they decide to pop open the alcohol and get wasted.... seriously?
It brings the movie to a dramatic impasse that is completely unnecessarily and just slows down the mystery.
Luckily the movie manages to get some points in after that. More focusing on story development, having some very interesting plot twists and using the mystery to its benefit in stead of for the drama.
Those last 15 minutes are a good home run, and the movie sets up a completely other pace and setting. Suddenly moving from a group of people with no clue what's going on, to one main character with an objective.
Maybe they should've done this from the beginning to make it more interesting. The girl (Emily?) who took on this role was from the beginning one of the few actors I did not have many complains about, and was doing a good job.
Usually I am a big fan of the 'quantum multiverse' theory worked into a movie, and the concept in this one is very nicely done. But even though they tried (and to be fair the creators have a good grasp on the subject) it kinda failed with the overly dramatic setting and insulting the viewer by letting characters make dumb decisions.
Since it is a low budget movie, I decided not to be too harsh on the rating itself (it really is a movie that can match itself with the high budget ones) and I definitely would upvote for a remake with some better scriptwriting for dialog and some actions. Because I think that this flick could be even better.
I'll i have to say is to pay attention when Em calculates the probability...the calculator said 5.000.000+, when she saw those digits she understood everyone around her except the ones that gave the exact same the dice said, were from other houses... probably from a billion others and somehow connected the group of 8. that's why she left, cause she understood also that every house represented a different reality, that's why she skipped some of them and stopped at the one that with the group socializing and not being aware of the reality split, replacing herself.
Lets say there's 3 of you... One that is gentle, one that is smart, one that is a bad person, Each one in a different house not being aware that is all of them 3 go outside they will see themselves and probably freak out, you have timer (The comet) that lets the original you stay where you are or go to other house and replace yourself. Em "The protagonist" understood while she skipped houses seeing herself in them, but she understood that is impossible for her to go back to her original house since she left the house she was originally in because there were 5.B+ the same and she had to quickly look for another reality for her to be into, she went after a reality where the 8 of them were happy.
So, the reality thing got fucked when hugh and amir went out... it was impossible for the original themselves to go back. There is a scene were a hugh and amir go back with a red glowstick and a blue one and hugh starts fighting because mike hooked up with hes wife, but that mike was from another house (Apparently from another reality were he never did such thing).
When i say original i refer to the ones at the first scenes, but there is no such things as originals... they are themselves but in different type of ways (Personality,llifestyle,etc...)
Sorry for grammar. My main language is Spanish.
