You know you are in trouble when the comments on the back of the DVD packaging say "visually stunning", because this is the inevitable comment on a film which has a rambling disjointed plot and below par acting. And so it was. Way, way too long at almost 3 hours the story is played out across the world. The characters are flat and unengaging - the two male leads being played by Sam Neil and William Hurt who specialise in alienation and distance. Neil's facial expression is the same whether he is in love, being betrayed, chasing the bad guy, being mugged, or watching his beloved in agony. Even the most emotionally charged part of the film - in the father-son relationship during the last third - is clichéd (with Max von Sydow playing to type) and stilted.
The plot twists and turns, but in the end leaves many things unexplained - it's not at all clear why Hurt is being pursued in the end or who the people were that pursued him. It all gets resolved by the supposed disaster which never materialises - a disaster movie with no disaster, an apocalypse with no horsemen. It's full of disjointed parts that don't add up to a satisfying whole. Many of the scenes are completely flat and add nothing. When Hurt wakes up between two elders, they seem to be as baffled by their appearance in the movie as I was, and he is as unreadable as ever.
The idea of hiding away in Australia with a tribe of Aboriginals is somewhat novel, but this is a white man's fantasy I think - they are a group of Man Friday's who attend to his every need, although there is a step too far and they do leave him which once again is done with minimal emotion.
The whole thing was as dry as the Aussie desert. Maybe you had to see it on the big screen, but in the end I did not believe the film was visual stunning - it used some stock shots of the Australian Outback but there was nothing very interesting in the way the film was shot.
I found myself earnestly wishing for the end of the movie, if not the world.
The plot twists and turns, but in the end leaves many things unexplained - it's not at all clear why Hurt is being pursued in the end or who the people were that pursued him. It all gets resolved by the supposed disaster which never materialises - a disaster movie with no disaster, an apocalypse with no horsemen. It's full of disjointed parts that don't add up to a satisfying whole. Many of the scenes are completely flat and add nothing. When Hurt wakes up between two elders, they seem to be as baffled by their appearance in the movie as I was, and he is as unreadable as ever.
The idea of hiding away in Australia with a tribe of Aboriginals is somewhat novel, but this is a white man's fantasy I think - they are a group of Man Friday's who attend to his every need, although there is a step too far and they do leave him which once again is done with minimal emotion.
The whole thing was as dry as the Aussie desert. Maybe you had to see it on the big screen, but in the end I did not believe the film was visual stunning - it used some stock shots of the Australian Outback but there was nothing very interesting in the way the film was shot.
I found myself earnestly wishing for the end of the movie, if not the world.