Camille

Starring: Sienna Miller, James Franco, Scott Glenn, David Carradine
Directed by: Gregory Mackenzie
Rating: PG-13
Genre: Adventure, Comedy, Drama
2008

Times Seen:
Tim: 1

Summary: A young couple (Sienna Miller, James Franco) take a bizarre, unexpected honeymoon to Niagara Falls.

Review:

Tim: I'm sure that whatever Camille was trying to be is a worthwhile endeavor. This movie is certainly not the least bit interested in being any kind of conventional movie you've ever seen. There is something admirable about a film taking the road less traveled. Unfortunately for Camille, the way you travel down that road matters. This is a film that admittedly tries something different. Unfortunately, it's a complete mess of a movie.

I'm not sure if there was a clear vision about what this movie wanted to be. It's a dark and twisted love story, but it's bizarre (in a bad way) in how the story unfolds. First off, there's no likeable characters. Besides maybe someone like Scott Glenn in a small supporting role, of course. The main characters are pretty awful. James Franco plays a horrible, stupid, selfish human being. He's completely unlikable, and yet, the movie asks us to like him. It fails to give even a partial reason of why we should. Sienna Miller might be worse. She's certainly nicer than Franco, but she's this naive, foolish, silly girl completely in denial about the reality around her. There's a few legitimately heartbreaking moments, but for the most part, it's hard to feel anything but contempt for these two characters. That was an odd choice.

The next issue is with the fact that (SPOILER ALERT- I don't know any way around it) Sienna Miller's character dies during the trip. And yet, she continues on regardless. There's some potential in this idea, but it's incredibly poorly executed. I just spent large chunks of the movie completely confused. Was she alive? Was she dead? If she's dead but still moving, how is that possible? Is it all a dream of James Franco? The way the story unfolded was so poorly told that it resulted in great deals of unnecessary confusion. It really brought me out of the story (not that I was overly interested to begin with). The movie also has these odd moments that are supposed to be symbolic, but just come across as forced and weak. For example, David Carradine (it's hard to watch him without thinking about his weird, weird death) is a horse handler who has these weird painted horses. I get the imagery of these painted horses, but it never really connects to the overall story. It just felt like this weird detail that was supposed to have significantly more meaning than it actually did. Ideas are interesting, but they just don't work out here.

All of this adds up to a movie that was really, really hard for me to sit through. I actively disliked nearly all the characters. I spent long stretches of the movie in uncomfortable confusion. I was bored and not engaged on any kind of level. The experience of watching this movie was quite unpleasant. Thank God it's only 94 minutes- I could barely sit through it and am not sure I could have made it if it was much longer. I have no desire to ever, ever watch this movie again, and I'd probably pay a significant amount of money to avoid that experience.

Rating 1-10
Tim's Rating: 4



If You Enjoyed This Movie, We Recommend: Wristcutters: A Love Story