Supelice Dreadfully Boring

Borgarkeri A bit overrated, but still an amazing film

Mehdi Hoffman There's a more than satisfactory amount of boom-boom in the movie's trim running time.

Raymond Sierra The film may be flawed, but its message is not.

Jackie Scott-Mandeville Renting this DVD in 2010, the film encapsulated the decade of the noughties in all its extreme materialism, consumerism, and negation of personal relationships. To begin with, I thought the film was going to be too depressing and overly precious in style and content, but as the themes developed, the intricacies and subtleties of character and plot wove carefully into a seamless whole, and the result was a satisfying, if excruciatingly cynical, survey of London society at the beginning of the 21st century. As it is necessarily a work of fiction, and not a reality show, the characters were allowed their melodrama, such as Penelope Cruz playing a prostitute dying of cancer, inexpertly 'helped' in her distress by a wonderfully subtle performance by Rhys Ifans as a social worker. Some of the darkest scenes in this dark, dark story, depicted the state of the social work system and its inefficient, uncaring way of managing those in need of the service - a scathing critique worthy of Dickens. In many ways, this film worked like a novel - it had a beginning, middle, and end; the structure was deliberate and meticulous, the style perfected, and the whole brought together by a superb cast of actors. Kristin Scott-Thomas is, to me, one of the best British actresses ever; she can play any part with subtlety and nuance and express the minutest detail of emotion with a change in her eye expression, or a slight movement of her mouth. She is painfully affecting as the ignored and bored wife, shopping expensively to no purpose, neglecting her son because she has neglected herself, feeling frustrated, and considering breast implants to restore her self-esteem (a knock at the prevalence of cosmetic surgery in present society). Her performance, understated, with more expression than dialogue, presages her Oscar-worthy acting in 'I Have Loved You So Long'.Having just seen Damien Lewis in a bravura performance as Alceste on the London stage in 'The Misanthrope' - a brilliant re-working of Moliere's play by Martin Crimp - I could see the origins of what he brought to the character of Alceste in the way he played Marcus in this film. All Marcus really wanted was to play the guitar in a band, not waste his life in the corporate world of high legal protection of privileged and corrupt professionals.Ben Chaplin, Ralph Fiennes (playing himself as usual, but effectively), Ian Holm, and Harriet Walter, were all equally good and as the disparate characters weave in and out of each others' lives, the ensemble piece comes together in a moving and impressive drama. I was not sure about the redemption ending, but maybe Martha Fiennes felt the film was just too deeply dark not to have some kind of cathartic closing. After all, Dickens does the same and we love him for that. So you will love this film. Stay with it: you will not be disappointed.

Framescourer It's entirely likely that you may have been tempted to watch this film by the extraordinary line-up of acting talent. Well Ralph Fiennes is excellent as a very Anglican, contained gay art historian matching Ian Holm's suffer-no-fools High Court Judge. I was also impressed by Ben Chaplin's two-faced tabloid journo. The quality slips however with the central couple, Kristin Scott Thomas ideally cast as a sad, self-absorbed mother - but not acting too far beyond that - and Damian Lewis as her equally distracted husband, a sort of posh version of Egg from This Life. The heart of the ensemble is supposed to beat with Rhys Ifans, who I cannot bear unless he's playing some sort of monster (Hannibal Rising, Not Only But Always) opposite a neurotic and excessive Penelope Cruz.The film they have to inhabit though is rather pale. It's dynamic is the culture, bureaucratic firewalls and general failures of the Blair administration. Go and see Notes On A Scandal instead for this subject matter. Here we have a lack of tension, be it dramatic or simply zippy dialogue to help us through. Presumably the title Chromophobia refers to the fear of a diverse cultural palette that is instigated by the litigiously minded administration targeted. It's a pity that the story is told with such a tourniquet as well. It also has the least well thought out soundtrack I've heard in a long time. 4/10

rosemary_ds So far only seen at Cambridge /Oxford special showings. A visually distinctive, intelligent, beautifully scripted, classy contemporary drama.Marcus, a successful lawyer (Damian Lewis) is the son of a High Court Judge (Ian Holm) now married to a dog-&-garden-obsessed - though emotionally repressed wife, (Harriet Walter). Gloria - an immigrant, single mum and Hep C suffering sex worker is played by Penelope Cruz - who finds herself aggressively resisting the tentative aid of a fragile social services worker, (Rhys Ifans). Marcus's wife, Iona (Kristin Scott Thomas) is a privileged, sexually frustrated, shoppaholic mother who becomes perturbed by her young son's relationship with his godfather, (Ralph Fiennes). At work, Marcus unwittingly discovers a momentous secret - ripe for exploitation by his old friend Trent (Ben Chaplin), a struggling investigative journalist, desperately in need of a break.The stories interweave with others and the film explores the psychology, dynamics and value systems of modern city life. Each character is forced to confront their lives and their disengaged flawed lives they inhabit.A brilliant cast all acting their socks off, the movie is a thought provoking visual feast. This is a thinking, feeling emotional/ psychological film. Gripping and sumptuous. It is a contemporary and challenging.

bobandtup I totally disagree with the negative comments I have read about the film Chromophobia. I went to see the film with no preconceptions at all and I came away feeling I had had a thoroughly entertaining evening. The film was fairly bleak in parts but I came away feeling positive and uplifted.The characters were complex and the script kept them totally believable. There was contrast in the subject matter and storyline as well as in way it was filmed. I think there were some highly ambitious ideas explored in the movie. The pace was perfectly pitched and hit the emotional level it was trying to achieve. The cinematography was superb and the music pulled the whole movie together. I felt the film was not a showcase for famous actors but rather a way to use their talent in a very modest way. The casting was spot on and created the opportunity to give the actors some challenging work.