srglipscomb

14 June 2013

Excellent - but not original

This is a compelling, intricate and clever film, and I thoroughlyrecommend it. Josh Hartnett and Diane Kruger are convincing andbeautiful. The film weaves through time, and uses several cinematicdevices to shift between different chronologies. It was, therefore, agreat surprise - and disappointment - to discover recently that thestory, characters, and even the composition of many scenes, aredirectly lifted from a French film called L'Appartement, featuringVincent Cassel. For those who enjoy film, you'll find it a veryinteresting cultural comparison, particularly as the endings aredistinct, throwing a completely different cast over the precedingevents of each film.

14 June 2013

Quite mysterious, but eventually all the strings get attached and it all makes sense.

Mathew falls in love with Lisa, whom he sees for the first time while passing next to the shop he works at. They meet up and both deeply fall in love, then she disappears without leaving trace. He starts a new life after failing to find Lisa, dates another girl for 2 years, whom is supposed to later get married to him, but however he is still haunted by the memories of Lisa and the question of why she left him. Then one day at a restaurant he spots Lisa very quickly before she leaves. He traces her through the hotel key room she leaves at the restaurant, and starts afterwards throughout the movie following many traces of her until he eventually leads himself to another Lisa, however not the same blonde Lisa he was in love with! In the end we realize that this new Lisa (brunette) faked her identity. Her actually name was Alex. She was deeply in love with Mathew for a long time without him knowing. She fell in love with him at first sight the same way he fell in love with Lisa! In fact, she was Lisa's close friend, but when she discovered her relationship with Mathew, she did all she can to keep them apart, and she succeeded to keep them so for 2 years. Evetually Mathew discovers her lie and finds the Lisa he loves and gets back together with her. Quite mysterious movie and not very easy to follow at first, however excellent story that keeps you thinking while watching the film. This movie for me was mainly about jealousy. How jealousy could hurt others. Alex was jealous because her friend Lisa was deeply in love with Mathew, so she decided to ruin their love. Didn't we see many cases like this in our lives? Also, cheating was a major thing in this movie. Mathew cheats on his fiancee with Lisa (emotionally). He also cheats on Lisa with Alex (physically). Alex cheats on her boy friend with Mathew. The only faithful one was Lisa. However, cheating wasn't stressed much on in this movie even though it was a major act. Love at first sight was also very much stressed on. I do not know if it actually exists, but many people seem to believe it does. Finally, some of your closest friends could turn up to be your worst enemies. Keep your friends close and your enemies closer.

Kupotek

31 May 2013

Elegant and Elusive

This is one of those movies that is unlike anything you have seenbefore, and I'm a big fan of the unpredictable, even when simple. It'sa step in the right direction for film, and for people who love tothink about film.This movie breaks things open, it looks inside. A film; sometimes amontage, there a story, here a dream, a memory.... we feel thingsdeeply in life, then this movie is a work of art. There was a scene near the end, when he goes to meet Lisa at the park,and you're so sure this is it, the movie is only a drawn out diatribeon the pointless futility of romance - and soul mates.. finding truelove... but yet again, the minute we become linear the movie cutsdeeper, and we are shown a complexity, both raw, and beautiful. Thismovie does this on several occasions, we get our first taste early on.The directing, music, acting, dialog, are all exquisite.

ThankGodImCute

31 May 2013

False Advertising

Wicker Park is not a bad movie at all, but its previews and promos makeit very misleading. Upon viewing a trailer for Wicker Park, the viewergets the impression it is some type of supernatural thriller like "TheForgotten." However, it is not this type of movie at all. It is aromantic drama, and a long and slow moving one at that. It can be quitesuspenseful at times but never in a scary, heart pounding kind of way.Sometimes I'm in the mood for long drama and sometimes I'm in the moodfor thrillers. I would have enjoyed this movie a lot more if I hadn'tbeen misled. With all that said, this is a nice, original movie withtons of twists and a slowly unraveling ending. Worth a watch at least,but know what to expect :) 5/10

sardonic413

20 May 2013

A perfectly-timed, nearly flawless love story

I have been passing on watching this movie for a couple years now--itjust didn't seem to suit my taste. I am regretting this now, as I havediscovered perhaps my favorite romance movie ever.The way the movie plays out is just so beautiful; almost exhaustingwith the misdirection. It's like a puzzle coming clear with each piece,and we all know how beautiful a solved puzzle is. Josh Hartnett isturning into a PREMIER actor...I felt all of his desperation,hope...happiness. There is nothing more painful than falling out oflove, except for losing that one without explanation. The not-knowingand wondering...is devastating. Feeling what the characters feel isexactly what this movie does for you--and that is my mark of a goodmovie. This was a home run for me. HIGHLY recommended...

sparklingcosmic

20 May 2013

grave violation of the original version Lappartement

When i rented Wicker Park (WP) because of Harnette was in it, i didn'tknow that it was the remake of my most favorite french film,L'appartement which stars Monica Belucci and her husband, VincentCassel.Since the opening dialog, WP brings the spirit of L'appartement withit, so I cannot help comparing the two versions. For those who have notseen the original version would probably think that WP is so originalon the story and performance. But it is far from original.I got so disappointed as i watched further, when I see see the actorsin WP do not play as good as the original version. Matthew was supposedto be extremely sad when Lisa the mysterious girl left him, and he wassupposed to be very curious when he finds out that Lisa is only a phonebooth away. But Harnett fails to do so.And in this case Diane Krueger doesn't have the mysterious personality,smile nor face that could make Matt wonders where she had gone to forthe past 2 years, while Monica Belucci's acting was definitely up thefilm.Something is missing in this film, and the actors seems like they don'tunderstand about the plot either. And I think is WP took out the mostimportant thing of the story which is about Matthew's attraction to thefake Lisa a.k.a Alex. In WP, it seems that Alex was the one who seducesMatthew, and that Matthew was forced to attracted to her in the firstplace. And since WP eliminates most of the substantial details from themovie, (such as the diary which Alex wrote that explains her actions,Lisa-Alex's friendship, and the suspense of Lisa's rich boy friendDanniel) it successfully turns WP into a puzzling unworthy romanticfilm with Hollywood ending. Especially when Matthew dumps Rebecca onthe airport. Like it is so easy to tell your girl friend, that you havebeen not yourself for the past 2 years.I suggest to watch the original version first. But then it wouldprobably blow you away and makes you don't even want to watch anyfuture remakes of it.

jordnthoms

19 May 2013

What was missing?

Riddle me this:You are given a movie with an exceptional soundtrack (Even thoughLover's Spit did not make the OST cut and *fortunately* the OST versionof The Scientist was the Danny Lohner remake), a big -- albeit obtuse-- screenplay, above average acting, and a remarkably cruel andbeautiful premise. However, this movie fails miserably in all essences.The beginning is quite confusing and failed to maintain my interest. Icontinued to neglect to pause when I left the room, which was actuallythe second bad sign. Bad sign number one: I LEFT THE ROOM. When Icouldn't hear the dialog, I would rewind it to find that I hadn'tmissed anything of note.By the time the pieces were coming together, I had really lost interestin the main characters and their Hollywood oblivious passerby scenes(ecstasy to the droning masses). You watch enough of these movies (MGMlion, jump in the lake boy... just about anything you recognize at thebeginning of a movie) and you learn that they aren't going to bump intoeach other until the most climactic moment in the plot (with only theloveliest of songs playing). It is disgusting how predictable thesemovies have become.While the characters were believable, the story failed to account fortheir actions or inactions. I was left with so many unansweredquestions about motives because absolutely nothing in the movie escapesthe barest and thinnest plot line. no auxiliary plots were present tocast insight into the behavior of the actors. "Simply take it as itis," you are instructed. But, for the house of cards built for theinitiation and reinitiation of the plot... well, you simply cannot seetheir construction (nor can you recreate it without delicate andexhaustive rationalization).I am so sick of this "delineate the plot from the story" philosophy. Soit has been successfully done a few times (Pulp Fiction). It has beenbutchered at least ten fold as many times. It's more used up than a 50-year-old Philipino "call girl". The reason that this was successful incertain movies is because the content within the delineated sectionsare independently substantial and valuable enough to be taken alone. Touse this method just to confuse people is an easy route to abuse thechildlike nature of the workaday slug. People see it and think:Mystery! This is no Agatha Christie novel however, and -- like a 10piece puzzle -- after collecting enough pieces you can easily see whereeach one fits, but when someone is slowly meting out these pieces, mostrational people become a bit annoyed.

RaniaE

18 May 2013

Sympathizing with the beautiful

Very powerful, artistic, and gripping to the very last moment. I lovedthe way past and present mix and how every glimpse backward or forwardboth complicates the story and explains it. The only thing I hatedabout the movie was the beautiful/ugly stereotype. The viewers areexpected to sympathize with Lisa because she's beautiful, presented asalmost "holy", and to not feel the same towards Alex or thehurtfully-abandoned fiancé. This might sound superficial, but I feelthat the movie would have been more powerful if there wasn't such adifference in attractiveness between the three women, or at least Lisaand Rebecca, because then it wouldn't send the subconscious message of"the prettiest girl wins".

littlewitch-1

14 May 2013

Oh Goodness this movie just sucked

Spare yourself the boredom - I really did not like anything about thismovie other than the lovely light and camera work.... The characters -esp Josh Harnett's misguided moron boy made me want to slap him - whata wimpy example of the American male under 35...so very sad to see thison screen. Why did they make this movie? It had no bite - you care forno one in this movie they all are boring self absorbed clods. I neverfelt a character came to life in this movie. Why the heck make a moviethat has no one to cheer for - I felt that the ending was just sopredictable. Josh Harnett's character acted like a little boy lost inthe world looking for his perfect woman - how lovely - how stupid - howamazingly immature. These movies just continue the idea that stupid menmake horrible choices in relationships. They attract ice queens who areso in love with themselves - I felt like they both really lovedthemselves more than anything else. BORING

cosminator20

13 May 2013

What a great movie !!! See it with your girlfriend ...

Never heard of this movie before but all your comments made me realcurious ; And it really heat my heart; Best romance I've ever seen; If you're on a first date, see this movie with your girl; I assure youthat you'll have a very hot night :))The only issue of the movie could be that the red girl is hotter thenthe blond one :)); (My opinion)Anyway all actors are proper for this king of movie , and played theiract very well;Question: Do you know another romance movie as cool as this one ?

Josh

08 May 2013

The Relationships

I just saw Wicker Park and read the various posts. There is one thingthat I haven't read yet that was the most striking part of the movie.The relationships were so similar, it was intriguing. You have oneexample where the obsessed actually does make contact with the personhe loves and it works for awhile. Later the obsession returns and isfinally realized. In another instant, the obsessed wasn't able to makecontact but still loved. The only difference was luck. The obsessionMatthew had for Lisa allowed him to love her how a person is supposedto love. The obsession Alex had was to be able to love Matthew how shewanted but even then she realized his obsession and out of love, shefelt guilty at his unhappiness and gave him the letter. I am generallylaid back, which maybe has kept me from loving deeper, maybe I justneed that focus........ that obsession shown in this movie. All I knowis that it is luck..... or fate, or whatever that defines where thatobsession...... that love goes.Oh, Josh Hartnett was very good in Virgin Suicides and O. The actingwas great, especially him and Rose Byrne. I recommend this to anyoneinterested in great storytelling and those who have loved or have beenloved.

rheitman

08 May 2013

GOT CELLPHONES?

I usually go to the movies to laugh, thus I rarely opt for "suspensful"type movies, which is what the trailers for Wicker Park seemed tosuggest that it was. Since I was intrigued by what small clips I sawAND because I am a huge fan of Chicago, I decided to spend a Sundayafternoon taking in Wicker Park...I was quickly sorry I did. This moviebegan slow, drug on for what seemed like hours, and had me moreconfused than I have been in a looooong time! Few plots have seemedmore contrived and less realistic than this one. The fact that thewhole situation (and about 20 scenes)could have been avoided by the useof a simple cell phone is what made this movie so annoying. I foundplenty of other things wrong with it, but have decided to just chalk upthe wasting of 2 hours and about $30.00 (by the time I had popcorn anda soda) as one of life's little disappointments. One last comment to filmmakers out there...don't insult theintelligence of the American public! If you're going to make a movieabout 2 people that are hopelessly in love and frantically searchingfor one another, don't have it take place at a point in time where itis technologically possible to reach someone all over the universe atany time of the day or night!!! This plot might have been morebelievable if it had taken place in a different era.

06 May 2013

I love this movie !

Amazing !I just finished watching Wicker Park for the second time around, I never really remembered any part of it, and I honestly thought I haven't watched it before, but once i started it, i knew i've seen it before, i just never remembered the details or the story at all, which was to my delight, as i enjoyed it so much.the movie displays human emotions to perfection, as it is a tale that involves Love, Jelousy and Deceit. the actors, brought the characters to life and displayed their emotions in such a great way. the movie captured my attention from start to finish, i was glued to the screen, so intrigued !Josh Hartnet was pretty good, but the star here, was Rose Byrne, whom im becoming a huge fan of, she was brilliant with her character. I also liked her a lot in every other role she played, particularly in the excellent TV drama Damages: The Complete First Seasonthe story is about a young man played by Hartnet who falls for a girl " Diane Kruger " at first sight, he manages to capture her love and they become a couple. soon afer, he looses her under mysterious circumstnces without being able to see or talk to her and moves out of town, a few years later, he returns back to town, and decides to look for her and finds out why she left him, but it is no easy task, and big surprises awaits him.Get ready to feel sad, happy and joyful with Wicker park, as it is guaranteed to stir emotions inside of you, for some time even after it ends.highly recoomended, buy the DVD.I just love this film !!

matti möttönen

06 May 2013

At last found good movie

After seen enough those cool best "headshot" movies, this was really apositive surprise. I am still sure bit confused about the story so Ineed to watch it again and again to understand it totally for everydetail but..even after one shot it was amazing new fresh experience inmovies. Very well done and amazing "cruel" story. And I have alwayswondered those who watch same movie on and on, but my reason is bitdifferent;)This could really be recommended for those who have seen enoughmurdering and killing in "good" movies. It was only one heel broken buteven it didn't hurt too much;) And as somebody told, after first halfhour someone could begin to wonder what the heck is so cool in thisboring "Lovestory". But kinda love story it was anyway.

kayla_marshall99

19 April 2013

Too many coincidences!

The movie seems really fake. Don't take me wrong, I loved it but attimes it just sort of seemed ridiculous!! It's like everyone arrived atthe exact time they should have...Everything happened at the righttime...Like when Matthew "Just happened to be there" when he wanted tofind the key in that hole thing..He was standing right in front ofit...I was like...OK? And right when Alex goes into Matthews apartmentto leave Lisa's note, Lisa calls. The fact that Alex is Lisa's bestfriend, and is dating Matthews best friend, I mean, it's sounrealistic! There's so much more and it kinda drowns the vibe of themovie. That's the only thing that bothered me.

jreinhardt-1

19 April 2013

Too much build up for nothing to happen

Wicker Park is one of those types of movies where you hope somethingterrible will happen to one of the characters. The plot was pretty goodalthough you expected to find out that his girlfriend was either deador not who she claimed to be. In every scene there is a build up ofanxiety thinking "Oh no she's going to kill her" and then nothing. Nextscene "She's going to kill him" and then nothing. It was boring! Thegirl even clears her conscience in the end. What exactly is thedirector & writer trying to tell us? Josh Hartnet was great! All theacting was superb. I just couldn't get into the movie itself. I keptexpecting something really disturbing to fulfill the idea of this beinga thriller, and nothing happened.

02 April 2013

It was ok.....

"Wicker Park" (2004)Obession, lies, deceit all things describing "Wicker Park"The movie started off somewhat confusing as the story is mostly told in flashbacks and memories. It held my interest although the plot is highly predictable. I didn't like the fact that you are anticipating the arrival of a suspensful moment, or some sort of twist and it never comes. They tried to use a little "twist" but anyone with half of a brain would know it was coming. The plot almost became aggervating during the last half of the movie. The ending left me quite dissapointed. I wanted more, an explination of smoe sorts I am guessing.The music in "Wicker Park" was quite enjoyable which is always a plus. All in all, I believe this movie to be worth a look but don't expect too much.

01 April 2013

A great disappointment.

The beginning of the movie was slow. The film has too many flashbacks. I couldn't tell whether we were in the present or the past. Diane Kruger and Josh Hartnett acted very well as well as Rose Byrne. Jessica Pare didn't have much scope in the film and that's what I didn't like. The story is based on how a crafty friend spoils the relationship between the two lovers. I wasn't convinced that tiny bits of lies spread by other people can make lovers hate each other. The camera picks up some nice spots in Chicago, my beloved city. 'The Drake Hotel' reminded my stay there. The wind of the windy city, the familiar skyscrapers, the snow and fogging breaths of the people. All shown very nicely.The music score is good.But the story and the flashbacks confused me. It became too stressful to find a meaning in the story,made me yawn several times. I saw it only because IMDB rating was 6.9. I can't agree with that rating. I'd probably give only 4.0I've to see some great movie today to compensate for the loss of time yesterday.

30 March 2013

Hes wicked Cute - but the movie still sucks!

OK, she's pretty - he's stinkin' cute - but the movie sucks! the writing, direction, plot, etc. From the blurb on the cover, i was expecting suspence, romance, mystery - and the only mystery was - "why did i stay up late on a weeknight to watch this?" my sweet Norman even said it was lame, and he likes most any movie, but, he did fall asleep halfway through, and i had to watch the rest with Norman drooling on my PJ top and the romote in hand, trying to hear over my beloved's snoring....

Magdalena Felix

30 March 2013

Bleah! Bad Movie!

Before I go to a movie I usually look it up on the internet or in amagazine, just to check if it's worth seeing. I read interesting thingsabout this one: a beautiful woman that mysteriously disappears andmysteriously reappears... and stuff like that. Besides, it said"thriller". So I figured I'd see it. Biiiiig mistake.The movie was a huge disappointment. I had expected it to be full oftension, suspense and maybe for some of you watchers out there itreally was. I didn't see it that way. Maybe I asked too much from it.But I had expected something spectacular, some shocking explanationsfor my questions. And in the end it was all so simple anduninteresting...The first five minutes bored the hell out of me. Then it all becomes sosappy and cheesy and over-emotional starting with the moment he seesher dancing right to the point where she says: "Take my picture, I feelbeautiful tonight!" Oh give me a break! We all saw "Love story", wewere all moved! Now give me a barf bag! Anyways, she disappears. So weall suppose that she's involved in I don't know what obscure situation.That she needed to run. That she was chased, threatened! This guyappears, Daniel, who's wife oddly died in a bizarre accident. Then wefind out that she had an affair with him. So maybe he killed his wifeso he could be with Lisa... a lot of ideas come to our mind! Somethingodd is going on here! Must see what happens! Chill, everyone! Nothinghappens! He appears in this movie only so Matt can find Lisa'sapartment key. That's his whole meaning. And this is the end of theamazing thriller. That's all.Then we start to find out the whole story: How Alex was in love withMatt, how he kept them apart! That seemed to me the most annoying partof the movie! A stupid game of circumstances where they both love eachother and they both think they've been abandoned by each other.Frustrating and sappy. For we find out that Lisa really loved him! Andshe really wanted to be with him. And she cries (for me, that ruinedthe whole Lisa character), and he cries, and Alex cries. And they'reall sad and they cry. Which brings me to another question: if Lisabelieved Matt to have cheated on her, how come she forgave him soeasily? The best scenes were the "coffee in a champagne glass" sceneand the scene at the restaurant when Matt meets Alex, which was sofunny that i couldn't stop laughing! Oh, and I really did appreciatethe Coldplay song at the end, it's one of my favorites.So all in all, the movie bored me. The memory game was indeed very welldone and "Matthew" is indeed really good looking but that isn't enoughto make a good movie.But why believe me? Go ahead and see it! Maybe you'll like it.