Day 193 - 7/12/09 - Movie #193
BEFORE: I'm going into this one knowing almost nothing about it - I picked this one up off cable after doing a search on "De Niro", and it seemed like it would go well on a DVD with "The Mission".
THE PLOT: Five people are killed in a freak accident when a lofty rope bridge collapses. The film details a priest's journey to discover if there was a divine reason for the bloody disaster. Set in Lima, Peru, during the 18th century.
AFTER: Confusing, confusing! So much of this film went over my head, I feel like I barely understood a thing. We're told that 5 people died in a bridge accident, then we see a series of flashbacks representing a monk's examination into the lives of the people who died - but we don't know WHICH 5 people will die in the accident.
It's really a look into the lives of the Peruvian aristocracy, exciting as that sounds, and a chance for Harvey Keitel and F. Murray Abraham to wear period costumes and powdered wigs. But there are all these little rules and customs that I just didn't grok. It got so tedious that I couldn't wait to see the bridge collapse, which is a little like watching "Titanic" and rooting for the iceberg.
Gabriel Byrne plays the monk who's looking for some kind of divine meaning, some kind of peek into God's plan in taking these 5 lives. But, it's a ROPE bridge - maybe the bridge failed because 5 people tried to cross it at one time, and that Marquesa (Kathy Bates) was a pretty hefty woman! I'm thinking, send Kathy Bates across the rope bridge, and if it holds, then maybe 2 more people can go across...common sense, right?
RATING: 2 out of 10 letters to Spain
DENIR-O-METER: 2 - De Niro plays an archbishop, mostly in a flat manner, but he perks up a bit in the "Inquisition" framing scenes.
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