The Man from London

THE MAN FROM LONDON (2007) - Sept. 8, 2007
Sweet Jesus. What was that?? More of a cinematic endurance test than an actual movie, though I suppose that I can't really judge it since I walked out after only an hour. I would have stayed (though this was an awful, awful movie, I'm sure I've seen worse -- though I can't think of too many titles off the top of my head), but I made a scheduling snafu and would have almost certainly missed the next movie if I had. It was fairly clear that the movie wasn't going to improve, so I did what had to be done. But man. What was the deal with this movie? Even after sitting there for an hour there was only the vaguest whiff of a plot, and not a single character (though there were a couple of people who I guess were there most of the time, they weren't developed in the slightest). The movie consisted of ridiculously long shots in which almost nothing happens, with maybe a little bit of slow camera movement. It makes Antonioni look like Paul Greengrass. The camera would focus for minutes on end on things like a guy eating some stew, or the back of someone's head, or a building, or (and this was the first shot, and an ominous warning of things to come) a close up of a boat. Not the whole boat, just the front part of it. For about five minutes. Oh man. NO RATING