Guillermo del Toro's latest film is a remake of a Tyrone Power/Joan Blondell movie based upon William Lindsay Gresham's 1946 novel of the same name. I've not seen or read those, but upon reading about them, their narratives make more sense, despite this being 2 hours 30 minutes long (compared to the 111 minute original.) Why remake it at all, but why remake it an hour longer, and yet miss out stuff that explains it better. I like Guillermo's work, so I was expecting something better.
Anyhow, Kate Blanchett is very good, and it has a big cast - Bradley Cooper - Willem Dafoe - the Guillermo favourite, Ron Perlman - and (I couldn't work out where I'd seen him before) David Strathairn (Commander Klaes Ashford in the Expanse). I can't fault the acting and it is visually pleasing. It does a good job of the carnival scenes.
The film charts the rise and fall of a con man who works his way up in a travelling carnival. He is ambitious and has a talent for manipulating people. He leaves the carnival with Molly the "electric girl" and moves to Chicago. There, he hooks up with a female psychiatrist, who is even more dangerous than he is, and he attempts to swindle the elite and wealthy. His eventual fall is quite obviously flagged. He is told several times "never do a spook show," and even the Tarrot cards are against him, but he cares about absolutely nothing for anybody except himself, so when his downfall comes, you don't feel any sympathy at all; it's merely synchronicity. And the out-of-place info dump about the "geeks" and "nightmare alley" in the middle of the film, means that even that final twist has now become obvious.
Anyhow, Kate Blanchett is very good, and it has a big cast - Bradley Cooper - Willem Dafoe - the Guillermo favourite, Ron Perlman - and (I couldn't work out where I'd seen him before) David Strathairn (Commander Klaes Ashford in the Expanse). I can't fault the acting and it is visually pleasing. It does a good job of the carnival scenes.
The film charts the rise and fall of a con man who works his way up in a travelling carnival. He is ambitious and has a talent for manipulating people. He leaves the carnival with Molly the "electric girl" and moves to Chicago. There, he hooks up with a female psychiatrist, who is even more dangerous than he is, and he attempts to swindle the elite and wealthy. His eventual fall is quite obviously flagged. He is told several times "never do a spook show," and even the Tarrot cards are against him, but he cares about absolutely nothing for anybody except himself, so when his downfall comes, you don't feel any sympathy at all; it's merely synchronicity. And the out-of-place info dump about the "geeks" and "nightmare alley" in the middle of the film, means that even that final twist has now become obvious.
). It was the first and only time I dozed off at the movie theater.
