A Swiss professor saves a woman from committing suicide only for her to then vanish, leaving him with her coat. In it he finds an intriguing, profound book written by a Portuguese author and a train ticket to Lisbon. He sets out to Lisbon to unravel the mystery.
The plot summary for this film piqued my interest, sounding like a latter-day Hitchcock thriller. Throw in Jeremy Irons, Charlotte Rampling and Christopher Lee and surely this should be a decent drama.
Not quite. Rather than a Hitchcockian thriller it's more a slowly-developing drama, told through the investigations of Raimund Gregorius (Jeremy Irons's character). The story that he uncovers isn't overly engaging, interesting or possessing of a profound or satisfying ending.
It isn't even necessary to tell the story through his eyes - it could just as easily have been told in the conventional way, through the eyes of the characters portrayed. Seeing it revealed through Gregorius's eyes just pads out the movie and reduces the engagement with the characters in the story.
There is some intrigue as to what happened and the performances are solid, so not entirely a waste of time.
The plot summary for this film piqued my interest, sounding like a latter-day Hitchcock thriller. Throw in Jeremy Irons, Charlotte Rampling and Christopher Lee and surely this should be a decent drama.
Not quite. Rather than a Hitchcockian thriller it's more a slowly-developing drama, told through the investigations of Raimund Gregorius (Jeremy Irons's character). The story that he uncovers isn't overly engaging, interesting or possessing of a profound or satisfying ending.
It isn't even necessary to tell the story through his eyes - it could just as easily have been told in the conventional way, through the eyes of the characters portrayed. Seeing it revealed through Gregorius's eyes just pads out the movie and reduces the engagement with the characters in the story.
There is some intrigue as to what happened and the performances are solid, so not entirely a waste of time.