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Wicker Park

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manavmehta

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I just got back from watching Wicker Park, and I must say, I was truly blown away by this movie. I will not elaborate too much on what I liked about it because I don't want to spoil it for anyone who hasn't seen it - but to describe it in terms of abstractions (or essentials if you will), I think the movie was an expert and eloquent portrayal of what romantic love can and should be like and in that sense, it has entered my list of all time favorite movies. Just wondering what others who have seen it thought about it.

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I just got back from watching Wicker Park, and I must say, I was truly blown away by this movie. I will not elaborate too much on what I liked about it because I don't want to spoil it for anyone who hasn't seen it - but to describe it in terms of abstractions (or essentials if you will), I think the movie was an expert and eloquent portrayal of what romantic love can and should be like and in that sense, it has entered my list of all time favorite movies. Just wondering what others who have seen it thought about it.

::nods in agreement::

I saw it, too. I particularly loved the filming techniques. The opening scene, along with others, was eye and mind catching. Likewise, I'll refrain from detail. At times I felt :dough: " the movie needs to unravel faster because i want to leave, yet i've stayed too long, wanting to know the ending" <_< manipulating bastard writer, lol. Overall, it was a quite lovely film.

What does your list of all time favorite movies consist of?

The actress who played Lisa, Diane Kruger, I think she could possibly do a fine job of portraying Dominique in a Fountainhead remake. I have not seen other works of hers, however. What is your opinion?

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I just got back from watching Wicker Park, and I must say, I was truly blown away by this movie.

Me too! An excellent movie. Great storytelling.

(I forget which thread it was in, but someone had objected to the very notion of telling a story with out-of-time-sequence events. This film is yet another counterexample to that, where the time-sequences themselves created a wonderfully dramatic effect.)

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Me too! An excellent movie. Great storytelling.

(I forget which thread it was in, but someone had objected to the very notion of telling a story with out-of-time-sequence events. This film is yet another counterexample to that, where the time-sequences themselves created a wonderfully dramatic effect.)

That was me! I was telling some of the things I didn't like about Pulp Fiction. I enjoyed Wicker Park, and the use of flashbacks was appropriate. It's not the sequencing itself that I object to. In Pulp Fiction, I think I was annoyed by what I saw as the lack of a coherent plot. That isn't the case in Wicker Park.

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The movie was indeed excellently directed, the acting performances were virtuoso, and I was kept at the edge of my seat until the end, but it was also romantic realism at its best. It wasn't just the storytelling and expert direction that I loved in this movie, it was also the fact that its philosophy was essentially in harmony with mine. Every character is the movie gets what he or she deserves in the end (i.e. gets his or her fair share of justice). The hero fights for his values and achieves them in the end. Which is why I left the theater with a high feeling which I cannot identify with after watching any other recent movie.

Diane Kruger as Dominique - ahhh, I don't know. I kinda always had Kirsten Dunst in my mind for that role. What do you think?

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I just got back from watching Wicker Park, and I must say, I was truly blown away by this movie. I will not elaborate too much on what I liked about it because I don't want to spoil it for anyone who hasn't seen it - but to describe it in terms of abstractions (or essentials if you will), I think the movie was an expert and eloquent portrayal of what romantic love can and should be like and in that sense, it has entered my list of all time favorite movies. Just wondering what others who have seen it thought about it.

I saw it today too and agree with everyone else. The editing was superb.

It reminded me of "Revolving Doors", also an excellent movie.

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  • 2 weeks later...
The actress who played Lisa, Diane Kruger, I think she could possibly do a fine job of portraying Dominique in a Fountainhead remake. I have not seen other works of hers, however. What is your opinion?

I believe she played Helen of Troy, in the film Troy.

Just to add my $0.02, this was a good one to see alone.

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Thank you Objectivism Online members. I finally went to see Wicker Park last night. I had been uncertain about whether I really wanted to see the movie based on some of the reviews that I had read. I often use Rotten Tomatoes as a guide and have found them to be fairly reliable, but not this time. The posts here were enough to arrouse my curiousity.

What a delightful surprise! The story was very well told and wonderfully romantic. Many of the negative reviews seemed to center around the time lines, which did bounce back and forth and then back again. :) For me it made the movie even more interesting and exciting. There was not a lot of time to try and figure out the story line on your own. You really had to pay attention or take the chance of missing something very important.

The cinematography was not only beautiful, but very creative. I especially enjoyed the use of splitscreen. This enabled the viewer to experience what was going on with all of the characters at the same time rather than having to watch them play out separatley.

I enjoyed Wicker Park thoroughly and am glad that I did not wait to rent it at the local video store, although I may still do that. ;)

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  • 6 months later...

I just finished this movie 5 minutes ago, and I absolutely loved it, though I did have one major problem with it:

(manahveta)

Every character is the movie gets what he or she deserves in the end (i.e. gets his or her fair share of justice).

I emphatically do not agree with this statement.

SPOILER

------------

Why, why, WHY did the film writer include the character of Rebecca (name?), the woman Matthew was planning to marry at the beginning of the film? This film could have EASILY been made without her, but her presence almost completely ruined the ending for me. She did NOT deserve what was done to her. Now, the focus was supposed to be on Matt and Lisa--would any honest, introspective viewer of this film NOT realize that Matt, in spite of his joy at having found Lisa, will have to live with guilt issues over what he did to Rebecca? The film sort of sluffs off her situation: she gives Matt some typical "I hate you/who the hell do you think you are" line, then abruptly exits his life forever. Matt, seemingly unperturbed, walks to Lisa and finishes off the movie with an otherwise lovely scene of being reunited with Lisa.

Damn it, the film was SUPPOSED to focus on the drama of the Lisa-Matt-Alex triangle, but this part really threw off my emotions at the end. Anyway, I will take away from the movie what was good. And yes, I agree that Kruger would make a good Dominique (opposite Brad Pitt??), provided she can mask her (sexy) accent.

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Oh, and one thing I forgot to mention: poor Luke! Sure, he was kind of annoying, but I'd say he got the proverbial shaft as well, and undeserved. If only the nearly-overcomplicated plot could have included his hooking up with Rebecca at the end :-)

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I just finished this movie 5 minutes ago, and I absolutely loved it, though I did have one major problem with it:

I emphatically do not agree with this statement.

SPOILER

------------

Why, why, WHY did the film writer include the character of Rebecca (name?), the woman Matthew was planning to marry at the beginning of the film?  This film could have EASILY been made without her, but her presence almost completely ruined the ending for me.  She did NOT deserve what was done to her. 

Now, I beg to differ with you! Sure, Rebecca was a seemingly nice person (although we are told very little about her in the story). Sure, it was sad that she had to break up with Matthew in the end! But, that does not mean she was treated unjustly! In fact, I would insist that she was treated justly, because

1. She found out the truth in the end, and

2. She was better off being alone than being with Matthew when he actually loved someone else. An optimistic way of looking at this ending would be that Rebecca will find someone else who actually loves her as passionately as she wished Matthew did.

It's neither fair or unfair that Matthew did not love her as passionately as Lisa. It's just a fact of life. We love some people and some people we don't.

Although, I still partly agree with you, that it is questionable why Matthew was with Rebecca in the first place if he did not love her as much. But I consider that detail non-essential to the core philosophy of this story, which is, that romantic love is far too deep and important a thing to be settled for with anyone.

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