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Reviews
The Thirteenth Floor (1999)
Really "not bad"...
In looking at the reviews of this film before seeing it, I was surprised at the number of "not bad" comments I saw, and wondered what such a consensus meant in terms of the movie. Now, having seen the film, I have to add in my "not a bad flick" rating as well.
The story line is creative and ambitious, and it should not spoil anything to say that this movie deals with perceptions of "reality" a la the Matrix (and others). However, the Thirteenth Floor distinguishes itself with a nicely inverted film noir twist which I found to be quite novel and thought provoking. Pretty nifty stuff.
The problems with this film are two-fold: 1) The acting can get lackluster at times and is not helped by the script which is pretty drab in terms of dialogue 2) The movie in general suffers from lack of dramatic contour, and it feels much flatter than it should given what's happening. People's entire conceptions of the world are changing and the character's level of anxiety about this never seems to rise above one of disillusioned vexation--I think I'd be more than just a little p***ed off if I found out that my life was somehow "not real".
That said, I would definitely recommend this movie and would recommend you see in several times. Though its not great, it's really not bad.
The Luzhin Defence (2000)
Something is missing...
The movie is beautifully photographed, costumed, acted and directed--so why was this such a let down to see?
Granted, Nabakov's book is very cerebral and driven by the inner turmoil of Luzhin's mind. Translating such mental dynamism to a movie would be very difficult. Alternately, the approach taken by the film seems like it could have worked on its own level, and one has to wonder why it was allowed to fail. My guess is that there was pressure to cut this movie down to a shorter length, perhaps figuring that audiences could only take so much of the tortured main character's wailings. There are numerous instances of poorly done cuts (not in keeping with the rest of the film) where scenes look as if they were chopped short in mid-stride, as if to get to the end faster. I don't mean to be flip here either, but there are such significant gaps in character development that one has to imagine that the released film is not what the directors and writers had in mind. As a result, we never appreciate fully either the nature of Luzhin's inner torment, or the motivations of the villainous Valentinov (who is just so cruel that his motivations demand some fleshing out).
The sentimental ending (which predictably is not based on anything in Nabakov's novel) fits in awkwardly with the rest of the film, though it does at least fit. Considering the movie's terse treatment of its characters, the more pointed ending supplied by Nabakov would have come off as unsatisfying and hollow.