The story written by the director/screenwriter John Patrick Shanley has always been a little weird. For example, he won the Oscar for Best Screenplay "Moonstruck," where Nicholas Cage's hand was chopped off while cutting bread is an important plot point. With Nicolas Cage's hysterical performance, it's a bit inexplicable, you don't know whether it should be a smile or a serious one.
John Patrick Shanley said that after he finished writing "Joe Versus the Volcano", he was going to shoot Spielberg. Spielberg asked him, do you want to direct this yourself? He said he wanted it, so he did it. The director.
The first movie, with a budget of 30 million, is not necessarily a good thing.
The problem with this movie is that the director wants to express too many ideas and uses too many metaphors, but after all, he has no experience in guiding, so he is overwhelmed by the sea of metaphors he has created, and he circumvents himself in it. Symptoms It is to express confusion. Some ideas are more successfully explained, but more are not.
What successfully expressed was the theme: What you love is always the reflection of the same soul on different bodies. Meg Ryan played three women alone. The first two and Tom Hanks did not "successfully hold hands." The last time the two finally "happily ever after."
Everyone, more or less feels this way-you Love is always the same soul, and the success or failure of feelings depends on the stage of life you and her were at at that time. By chance, which aspect of her did you see, which aspect of you did she see— —It's like "projection in the hole" as Plato said. So Tom Hanks said twice, "I felt I'd seen you before."
So we saw three Meg Ryans, one was confined to the triviality that Tom Hanks could no longer tolerate (using the New York metaphor), childish as a child; the other was the transformation of Tom Hanks's life from this side (New York) to the other side (navigation) Time (Los Angeles)'s passers-by were arrogant and empty; the last one finally had to spend the journey with Tom Hanks. Tom Hanks finally met the right person, so they became. In fact, there are three Tom Hanks, although they are all called Joe Banks: one is the walking dead, one is naive, and the other is mature.
This theme is very interesting, and it is also very clever to use one person to decorate the triangle. In addition, the performance of the two in this movie is quite successful.
But other themes are not. The lightning-like line segment symbol that appeared repeatedly in the movie, the general working environment at the beginning of "1984", and the island where Jewish and Polynesian islanders culture blended, failed to lead to a clear and fully developed theme. Post-industrialization and human alienation? Faust makes a deal with the devil? Enlightenment and awakening of people?
There are too many clues, like a tuft of colorful yarn, leaving only chaos.
The more serious problem outside the subject is the shooting technique. This is a ridiculous, fantasy, "quirky", "whimsical" story, but the director has used many very old-fashioned lens language and expression techniques, such as the scenes of passing the sea with string music. Moreover, the director's ability to control is very limited. Like the passage on the island, the comedy of the idea of "Jewish natives" was not filmed, and it was naive, clichéd, and stupid. It was the performance of the chief actor Abe Vigoda (the traitor Tessio in the first part of The Godfather) that made the entire passage less horrible.
There is also a problem with the choice. This movie can be cut for at least ten minutes. For example, the scene of drifting at sea, the scene of fishing, and the scene of buying clothes in Manhattan are all too much writing.
Music matching is also very problematic. Part of the soundtrack is blues and 60s rock, but some of the soundtrack is synthesizer music and orchestral music made by French film composer Georges Delerue. The two parts have too much contrast in style and are very inconsistent. . And the soundtrack is too dense, such as when drifting on the sea, the music has been non-stop, too tired.
In the final analysis: this is a weird movie, a little bit different, and a more successful philosophical theme, but the film is too big and there are too many clues and metaphors, which makes the movie appear chaotic. If you are looking forward to a romantic comedy, don't watch it. If you are holding the anticipation of a cult film, it is worth watching.
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