Winterbottom employs a naturalistic style that, in its self-conscious flatness, becomes an affectation, and the complete, wanton lack of any kind of drama is frustrating.
Comment
03/31/09
Genova (2008)
77
%
Tomatometer
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Reviews Counted:39
Fresh:30
Rotten:9
Average Rating:6.2/10
Consensus: Michael Winterbottom’s tale of grief and mourning, though frustrating in places, is intelligent filmmaking with superb central performances.
Rated: 15
Genre: Dramas
Theatrical Release:27-03-2009
Starring: Hope Davis, Colin Firth, Perla Haney-Jardine, Catherine Keener
Director: Michael Winterbottom
Reviews for Genova
A tender and touching film.
03/31/09
Spree killer thrillers, experimental rockumentaries, adaptations of unadaptable books and now supernatural dramas - is there anything Michael Winterbottom cannot do?
03/28/09
Top CriticWith a stronger third act and less spiritual flounce this could have been something really special, but as it stands its merely a solid entry in the versatile writer/director's CV that will no doubt be eclipsed by whatever he chooses to do next.
03/28/09
There is a vague sense of unease in the air but this remains a tedious movie in which everything remains unspoken, underdeveloped and annoyingly inconclusive.
03/28/09
Part psychodrama, part Italian travelogue, Michael Winterbottom’s latest is the progeny of an A-list film-maker and B-movie material.
03/28/09
There's a powerful emotional undertone to this film that overcomes its slightly thin structure and give us plenty to chew on, especially if we've experienced some sort of personal tragedy.
03/28/09
A film that’s ambiguous, involving and very intelligent indeed.
03/27/09
After his playful turn in Mamma Mia!, Firth cuts an altogether more sombre figure in this thoughtful study of bereavement. With no shock twist or homicidal dwarf up its sleeve, though, Winterbottom’s film seems a little self-defeating.
03/27/09
As solid as you’d look for from Winterbottom and this cast, but the touches of supernatural thriller in an otherwise rather conventional coming-to-terms-with-bereavement drama aren’t entirely convincing.
03/27/09
Top CriticIt can be to mix a strange city with devastating loss. It’s at once a deeply sad film and a deeply truthful and optimistic one.
03/27/09
Top CriticWinterbottom tries to make a modern and meaningful parable. He fails quite miserably.
03/27/09
Top CriticIt is impossible not to admire the fluency and intelligence of Winterbottom's film-making, and his prolific output. Yet Genova is a disappointment, more like a tentative sketch for a movie than the actual finished product.
03/27/09
Top CriticThis study in grief has a constricted, somewhat calculated feel – it’s missing the torn-from-the-headlines urgency of his best work.
03/27/09
Top CriticLocations are beautiful, but it is all rather straightforward and plodding.
03/27/09
Credit, though, has to go to Winterbottom for the way he uses Genova’s menacing alleys and chaotic traffic to create tension.
03/27/09
Top CriticJoin up the dots in Michael Winterbottom’s new film and you get the outline of a shaggy dog. But if Genova meanders, it has an ensorcelling, even zodiacal charm.
03/27/09
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03/27/09
Top CriticI suspect the director was aiming for a sun-blessed version of Don't Look Now, but his ghost story conjures neither suspense nor intrigue.
03/27/09
This is a much more intimately reflective drama than Winterbottom usually supplies, and it tells us a lot about loss in a dozen small ways. The cast, particularly the children, do the director proud.
03/27/09
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