Fassbender lacking his usual, hypnotic tension. Vikander completely devoid of the oomph that I so adore in her performances. The theme is strong, the layout simple.
Yet the story never truly begins.
The sloppy writing and chopped flow quickly result into erratically spoon-feeding the viewer unnecessary information when there are far more important things that we need to see and consider in order for the characters’ motives and decisions to resonate with us.
For example, by completely glossing over the initial romance in such haste, Tom’s choice to act the way he did takes away from the immense guilt he had to be carrying to go against Isabel’s wishes as and when he did. Or, with no time spent on them as a nuclear family, if we barely journey through the every-day aspects of parenthood alongside this couple, how is the ending even supposed to be plausible?
And still, in so many places it lingers and stills, favoring style over substance, cinematography over progressive narrative. A huge, beautiful shame.
All in all, and barring an amazing performance by Weisz who had extremely little to work with and still managed to make this her movie, I was left feeling bloated, frustrated and completely unsatisfied.
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Of course I’m going to defend Vikander, thought she was pretty good throughout. But like The Danish Girl, her talents outweigh the final product of the film. With Macbeth and this, Fassbender is making a habit of high profile disappointments.
I think Vikander is a magnificent actress, however, in this case, she is being swallowed by the film’s overachieving clamor. When a character is written in such a weak, unconvincing way, there is simply no challenge to be met.