This film seems like the low budget version of Branded. It also features a pair of people working the marketing system, a soulless thing designed to make us like what we don't need and suffer for not having it. Unlike Branded, though, Syrup does not try to make it all surreal, quite the contrary: it shows in select moments of the film the inner workings of advertising, both from a personal standpoint and from a theoretical one. Unfortunately it does feel so, surreal I mean, when the lead actors, lacking any visible or believable chemistry, start spouting wooden and pompous lines that make little sense.
If someone would seriously make a full feature film from the trailer of Syrup, it would be great. To be fair, Amber Heard did a great role, given what she had (and I don't just mean a smashing wardrobe and a beauty to match, I mean the script). Her counterpart also tried his best, although that clearly wasn't enough. No, the problem were not the actors, not even the story, but the script. One would be hard pressed to even consider that it is based on a book, but it is! I haven't read the book, but from reviews I've read it's gotta be a lot better than what the writers did with this film.
Bottom line: the very definition of pomp is that it tries too hard to show something off and it fails exactly in that respect. In the case of Syrup, it tried to seem smart and it came out as really dumb. Some bits, mostly the ones you see in the trailer, were remarkably good, but the stuff in between was excremental. Given that this is inspired by a book, I have to consider it a failure.
If someone would seriously make a full feature film from the trailer of Syrup, it would be great. To be fair, Amber Heard did a great role, given what she had (and I don't just mean a smashing wardrobe and a beauty to match, I mean the script). Her counterpart also tried his best, although that clearly wasn't enough. No, the problem were not the actors, not even the story, but the script. One would be hard pressed to even consider that it is based on a book, but it is! I haven't read the book, but from reviews I've read it's gotta be a lot better than what the writers did with this film.
Bottom line: the very definition of pomp is that it tries too hard to show something off and it fails exactly in that respect. In the case of Syrup, it tried to seem smart and it came out as really dumb. Some bits, mostly the ones you see in the trailer, were remarkably good, but the stuff in between was excremental. Given that this is inspired by a book, I have to consider it a failure.