You can tell when films are adapted from plays because generally the writing is top-notch, the ideas are dense, and the pacing and plot will be unconventional.
They can also fall flat on their face. That doesn't happen here for two reasons. One is that Kevin Kline and Kristin Scott-Thomas bring their A-game, even when delivering a boring caricature of alcoholism. Maggie Smith, who mainly annoys me, actually does a great job playing a sympathetic old lady, not some shrill old aristocratic boot.
The oddity would be a spoiler so I won't, but let me just say that this becomes a bit more complicated than happy/unhappy families in an unexpected way, where you can find yourself suddenly thinking 'wait - what?'. The fact that things so serious are dealt with so flippantly (as Wilde suggested, take the serious things lightly and the light things seriously) so goes against the grain that it's no bad thing when something like this makes it to the screen, so we should be grateful for that.
The premise is brilliantly knotty, the unknotting is a bit meh, the twists and turns are a bit eyebrow-raising, Paris looks stunning, there's a brilliantly eccentric opera scene that bookends the film, and the casting really is spot on. Not a complete waste of time, not at all.
They can also fall flat on their face. That doesn't happen here for two reasons. One is that Kevin Kline and Kristin Scott-Thomas bring their A-game, even when delivering a boring caricature of alcoholism. Maggie Smith, who mainly annoys me, actually does a great job playing a sympathetic old lady, not some shrill old aristocratic boot.
The oddity would be a spoiler so I won't, but let me just say that this becomes a bit more complicated than happy/unhappy families in an unexpected way, where you can find yourself suddenly thinking 'wait - what?'. The fact that things so serious are dealt with so flippantly (as Wilde suggested, take the serious things lightly and the light things seriously) so goes against the grain that it's no bad thing when something like this makes it to the screen, so we should be grateful for that.
The premise is brilliantly knotty, the unknotting is a bit meh, the twists and turns are a bit eyebrow-raising, Paris looks stunning, there's a brilliantly eccentric opera scene that bookends the film, and the casting really is spot on. Not a complete waste of time, not at all.