Winter's Tale Review

I’m not sure what was less romantic: Winter’s Tale or the fact that I saw this film with my mother in the middle of the day on Valentine’s Day. After seeing the movie, I can safely say that I went home with my mom, and no desire to see Winter’s Tale a second time. You be the judge.

This film, written and directed by Akiva Goldsman (adapted from the novel by Mark Helprin), simply doesn’t know what it wanted to be. Looking back on it, I should have seen it as a warning sign that whenever I saw previews for the film I thought to myself, “What is this movie actually about? What’s the story?” Well, the answer won’t be found by watching it. Goldsman gives us a world of love, magic, angels, demons, magic, beauty, hope, and magic (did I say magic? Oh, there’s a bunch of magic in this movie…). There’s so much going on, and so many scenes of poorly crafted expositional dialogue that the actual story is simply lost.

Beverly Penn (played by Jessica Brown Findlay) is a sweet, young, optimistic girl who suffers from consumption in this film. The fevers she undergoes give her visions of beauty, leading her to believe that we are all connected by stunning rays of light, and our souls become stars in the sky after we have completed our life’s mission. She then meets the rugged, dashing thief Peter Lake (played by the ever-charming Colin Farrell) and they, of course, fall in love. This set up is definitely sweeping romance, Valentine’s Day movie material, but the pay off really falls flat. Aside from the fact that these two do, indeed fall in love (spoiler alert?), the romance in this film is not nearly as sweeping as the film thinks it is.

The problem is lack of structure and cohesion. Writer/director Goldsman throws in Russell Crowe’s devilishly grinning Pearly Soames to add some sort of conflict. Pearly has a personal vendetta against Peter Lake that is never really explained; along with a set of rules that dictates certain plot points just for convenience.

There were moments in this film that were laughable, and let me remind you that this is not a comedy. Of course Peter Lake is rescued by a white horse when chased by Pearly and his goons, and there is a cameo in this film that I will not spoil, but I could not help myself from chuckling quite a bit. 

I came into this film not really expecting much, but I don’t think it clouded my judgment for this review. Movies can be mediocre but still enjoyable. Romances can certainly be schmaltzy but still be romantic; Winter’s Tale just came up short and hovered over borderline ridiculous.

All in all, I’d say Winter’s Tale has the potential to be a really fun date-night movie…but maybe not for the right reasons.