Knight of Cups (2015)

Genre

Drama | Romance

Director

Terrence Malick

Country

USA

Cast

Christian Bale, Cate Blanchett, Natalie Portman, Brian Dennehy, Antonio Banderas, Wes Bentley, Isabel Lucas, Teresa Palmer, Imogen Poots, Armin Mueller-Stahl, Freida Pinto, Cherry Jones, Nick Offerman, Dane DeHaan, Thomas Lennon, Joel Kinnaman, Jason Clarke, Katia Winter, Shea Whigham, Joe Manganiello, Ben Kingsley

Storyline

A writer (Christian Bale) indulging in all that Los Angeles and Las Vegas has to offer undertakes a search for love and self via a series of adventures with six different women.

Opinion

Although I am not very familiar with Terrence Malick's work - I've only seen "The Thin Red Line" which I loved - I still wanted to see this film. The storyline sounded interesting, but most of all, I was interested in the cast. There's Christian Bale, Cate Blanchett and Natalie Portman. What else could I ask for? Well, a decent film maybe.

Other than being beautifully shot - seriously, that gorgeous photography is a waste - "Knight of Cups" has nothing to offer.

The film feels like a tremendously long commercial for a perfume or something like that because nothing really happens. There isn't a story, it's just a collection of acts in which we follow the main character, a writer that feels empty inside, changing woman in each act and doing random things because why not.

With this experiment of his, Terrence Malick perfectly represented boredom, but not in a way that is exciting and make the viewer interested, but in a way that makes the viewer incredibly bored. If I wasn't sitting on a quite uncomfortable chair, I would have fallen asleep. In the middle of the day. It's quite an experience I'd say.

Like I mentioned before the photography is fantastic, but Malick overdid there too. I love those artsy shot of the ocean, waves, sand, sunsets and sunrises, but there are too many of those images. Maybe he realised those images were the only good thing about the film and used them that much.

As for the cast, it is truly amazing, and the reason I wanted to see this film, but there's nothing the actors can do to save the film. Actually with such a poor script, they don't even manage to get the job done right. And my criticism is mostly directed to Christian Bale, who doesn't look bored - that's how he was supposed to look -, but like someone who isn't enjoying what he's doing at all.