Alistair Olson
After playing with our expectations, this turns out to be a very different sort of film.
Juana
what a terribly boring film. I'm sorry but this is absolutely not deserving of best picture and will be forgotten quickly. Entertaining and engaging cinema? No. Nothing performances with flat faces and mistaking silence for subtlety.
Billy Ollie
Through painfully honest and emotional moments, the movie becomes irresistibly relatable
Andres-Camara
I did not expect to see a movie that looked like the movie of the year and it's not what I've seen, but at least I've seen a movie that is well taken. You know from the first moment that the most important thing in the film is the reaction between them and that they end up together, of course, but at least it goes step by step.Rebecca is great, makes a role, for my taste, incredible. It was a long time since I saw an actress who showed me that I was truly in love and with her, I've seen it. Richard is not up to it, but hey, it's not bad. Alan, of course, is fine, but that's not saying anything new.It has a great atmosphere, it seems that you are fully involved in that era. It is appreciated that makeup, costumes and art work so well.I can not say the same about the address. While it is true that the film tells the tempo level, does not bore, is giving the amounts in parts, but then at the time of the staging, is not able to make a nice plane or move characters from a Pretty shape and give life to a plane.Photography is beautiful in parts. The interiors are pretty good, but the exteriors, the photography is a bit too white. It's not pretty The final stretch is too long, that also has to be said.
Nina Berry
Perfect costuming and set decor. Alan Rickman is splendid and Rebecca Hall has won me over. But. The camera-work is negatively strange and distracting at times. The sudden zoom ins and (tragically trendy) shaky cam, not my cup of tea. I wish my remote control had a stabilizer button.
josephine77
I was riveted by Hall's performance and character. It is the first movie I have viewed her in and have subsequently viewed some of her other movies - this being my favourite.I'm surprised more people didn't enjoy the romance. I found the scenes intense and moving. Both the main characters were humble and deep in their feelings towards each other. I found the restraint displayed between them - despite the depth of their feeling - gave the characters a particular dignity - especially that of Charlotte. I loved the subtleties in her expressions which displayed a greater depth of love and emotion for Frederick than she was able to express.I enjoyed the movie far better than the book. Unfortunately I found the ending a let down to the film overall; although there was a build up to their meeting it lacked the passion and feeling their eventual meeting could of and should have had. Still better than the book though; and I can appreciate that the build up during Frederick's absence showed the depth of feeling Charlotte had for Frederick despite the years of separation.I rated the film a 10 despite its flaws because I disagree with the harsh general ratings and enjoyed it so much I had to watch my favourite scenes over and over.
gradyharp
A PROMISE is an exquisitely beautiful very quiet film based on Stefan Zweig's novel 'Journey Into The Past', sensitively transformed into a screenplay by writer/director Patrice Laconte (Monsieur Hire, The Hairdresser's Husband, The Widow of Saint-Pierre, Intimate Strangers etc) and co-writer Jérôme Tonnerre (Intimate Strangers, Un Coeur en Hiver, My Father's Glory etc). The story is enhanced in the film version so well because of the cast of fine actors and because of the atmospheric, very important musical score by Gabriel Yared.Staying very close to Zweig's novel, the story is set in Germany just before WWI and is centered on a married woman who falls in love with her husband's protégé. Separated first by duties and then by the war, they pledge their devotion to one another. Young Friederich Zeitz Richard Madden) has humble origins, but rises to the attention of his new boss, Karl Hoffmeister (Alan Rickman). Karl is aging and suffers from severe heart disease and his impression of Friederich's brilliance grows steadily. As he volunteers to tutor his employer's son Otto (Toby Murray), he gets more and more attached to Karl's young wife Lotte (Rebecca Hall). She refuses however to betray her husband even when they learn Friedrich must go to Mexico for two years to supervise a mining project for Karl. Friedrich and Lotte swear one another they will stay true to each other, but the oncoming war keeps them apart for far longer than expected. After six years, Friedrich goes back to Germany and finally sweeps Lotte off her feet.Rickman, Hall and Madden deliver perfectly crafted performances, each revealing the difficulty of keeping a promise when personal needs are not being fulfilled. It is a pleasure to see a romance bloom, pause and then grow into a full bouquet as time and circumstances change. The impact of the period of pre-WW I Germany, then Germany at war and losing, and the gloom of silence after the war is over is underlined splendidly by Eduardo Serra's cinematography and Yared's Beethoven-infused score. This is a period piece, finely crafted by Patrice Laconte. Its mood lingers in the mind long after the film is over.
