Winter's Tale (DVD REVIEW)
Winter's
Tale
DVD Review by Kam Williams
Screen Adaptation of Best-Selling Romantic Fantasy Arrives on DVD
Peter Lake’s
(Colin Farrell) parents had hoped to immigrate to the U.S. but were turned away at Ellis
Island upon their arrival early in the 20th Century.
Denied their shot at the American Dream, the Russian couple decided to leave
their baby behind, setting him adrift in a tiny model of a ship called the
“City of Justice.”
The infant was
carried by the tide to the shores of Bayonne,
New Jersey where he was found and
raised by compassionate clam-diggers. Upon coming of age, the teen moved to Manhattan and earned an
honest wage as a mechanic until succumbing to the pressure to join a gang of
ruffians led by the ruthless Pearly Soames (Russell Crowe).
Peter was subsequently schooled in thievery
under Pearly’s tutelage, though the two would become mortal enemies once the
protégé tired of doing his malevolent mentor’s bidding as a cat burglar. Even
after severing his ties to the criminal enterprise, the exasperated orphan was
forever looking over his shoulder while on the run from the burly bully.
A critical moment
of truth arrives when Peter finds himself surrounded by his former partners in
crime and is somehow spirited away by a winged white stallion. Another turning
point in the lad’s life transpires the fateful night he enters a well-fortified
mansion’s second-floor window with felonious intentions.
For, before he
has a chance to ransack the premises, Peter comes face-to-face with Beverly
Penn (Jessica
Brown Findlay), a sickly young heiress
suffering from tuberculosis. And despite her impending demise, he becomes
hopelessly smitten with the frail, philosophical free-spirit. Over the
objections of her skeptical father (William Hurt), the star-crossed lovers
proceed to embark on an otherworldly romance as enduring as it is
ethereal.
Thus unfolds Winter’s Tale, a
delightful flight of fancy marking the directorial debut of Akiva Goldsman, who
won an Oscar for his screenplay adaptation of A Beautiful Mind. Akiva also
wrote the script for this film which is based on Mark Helprin’s flowery
best-seller of the same name.
Does this movie measure up to the source
material? Can’t say, since I haven’t read it. Nevertheless, I found this
well-crafted piece of magical realism quite imaginative and intriguing, though
I suspect fans of the book might be a bit disappointed, given how much is ordinarily lost in translation turning any 700-page book
into a film.
A searing,
supernatural exploration of the human soul suggesting not only that love is
real but that miracles happen, too!
Excellent (4 stars)
Rated
PG-13 for sensuality and violence
Running
time: 118 minutes
Distributor:
Warner Home Entertainment Group
Blu-ray/DVD
Combo Pack Extras: Winter’s Tale: A Timeless Love; Characters of Good &
Evil; and additional scenes.
To
see a trailer for Winter's Tale, visit: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DBSj1MKwx6A
To
order a copy of the Blu-ray/DVD Combo Pack, visit:
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