Tom Jones

Starring: Albert Finney, Susannah York, George Devine, Diane Cilento, Peter Bull, Edith Evans, Joyce Redman
Directed by: Tony Richardson
Rating: Not rated
Genre: Comedy, Romance, Adventure
1963

Times Seen:
Tim: 1

Summary: Tom Jones (Albert Finney) contemplates leaving his carefree, womanizing ways behind him when he falls in love. However, his illicit actions have started in motion events which may be his undoing.

Review:

Tim: I'm actually surprised by how much I didn't like Tom Jones. I figured, the film won 4 Academy Awards- Best Director, Best Original Score, Best Adapted Screenplay, and Best Picture. It had to be good, right? Unfortunately, this is one of the weakest Best Picture winners I've ever seen. The movie was a struggle for me to get through, and the payoff was far too small. This is a disappointment, in my view, and I'm really surprised it received so much acclaim.

The movie features a fairly decent plot- Tom Jones is a rascal, caring about nothing and doing as he pleases. Those characters are often fun to watch on screen. There were a few enjoyable moments in that vein, but far too few. Albert Finney does a good job as the titular character, although I wasn't overly impressed with his performance. He was nominated for Best Actor, but I'm glad he didn't win. Still, he makes for a fairly decent leading man here.

Speaking of the cast, this film was nominated for an astounding 5 acting nominations- in addition to Finney, we have Hugh Griffith for Best Supporting Actor, Diane Cilento for Best Supporting Actress, Edith Evans for Best Supporting Actress, and Joyce Redman for Best Supporting Actress. The performances were good, but none are truly great, and it's no surprise that none of them won (plus the whole split vote thing). I'm actually surprised this many members of the cast were nominated. I wouldn't have guessed that.

The film is a comedy, but I didn't find it particularly funny. Some of that probably had to do with it being British humor, I agree. I found it very disruptive that the film continually featured characters breaking the fourth wall. I'm sure it added to the novelty and the lightheartedness of the film, but I didn't care for it very much at all. It just felt out of place and pushed me out of the story.

The film does feature some impressive sets and the scope of the film felt fairly large. Unfortunately, the movie is over 2 hours long and you feel that length. It actually felt longer to me. I just never felt a connection with Tom Jones, or why I should care about him. That made the events of the entire film superfluous. There was a good mystery in the film, and I was somewhat interested to see how it all turned out, but the level of engagement I felt was significantly lower than it needed to be.

I've seen quite a few Best Picture winners (most of them, in fact), and I usually have a pretty good feeling for why the movie won the most prestigious honor in Hollywood. With Tom Jones, I'm fairly perplexed. Sure, the film features a large cast, some good moments of levity, and feels fairly decent-sized in the production. However, it didn't impact me in any emotional way and I wasn't overly entertained at all. I know that these winners are often just a matter of taste, but this is certainly one film I wouldn't have even put on my Top 10 list, let alone name it Best Picture. In my opinion, this is one that the Academy just got flat wrong.

Rating 1-10
Tim's Rating- 6



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