ReaderKenka
Let's be realistic.
Phonearl
Good start, but then it gets ruined
Matialth
Good concept, poorly executed.
ChanFamous
I wanted to like it more than I actually did... But much of the humor totally escaped me and I walked out only mildly impressed.
j_dalius
Ok, Toby (adam driver) actually sucks so much as a character. he doesn't earn anything that he gets by the end. He is upset that Anjelica (Joana Ribeiro) is "owned/objectified" by Russian Trump Alexei (Jordi Mollà) so much so that he throws coins at her feet offering to buy her himself, still seeing/treating her as an object, and at no point in the story realising the irony of this.
Whats more, he manslaughters innocent and delusional Don Quixote (Jonathan Pryce) only to become the Hero by films end without ever earning the redemption for his past mistakes.
Anjelica should have been the one to become Quixote. she is the one who's character arc from the beginning was to set out to do great things (to become a hero). Toby's arc was kind of unclear, was he looking for his youthful inspiration?
The better ending is Anjelica becoming Dona Quixote, subverting the 16th century Male Hero Fantasy, bringing it into the 21st century (something Gilliam was attempting anyway), and breaking free of objectification to become her own master. A true character arc, moving from being owned (by Raul/Alexei) to becoming the story's Hero.
Instead she was delegated to Toby's sideshow. ick. 5 stars.
schrijvermarcel
Totally bonkers, dreamlike, vintage Gilliam and in the end even Lynchian weird. When it works it's brilliant, when it doesn't, it's baffling and sometimes boring. But even when the script doesn't work, the movie is saved by the incredible cast. It's among both Adam Driver's and Jonathan Pryce best work. Also, I'm in love with Joana Ribeiro.
tom-swinnen-883-165386
Let me start by stealing a line from another review:
"Quixote reminds us of the romantic ideal that the world needs dreamers who dare to defy convention. "Terry Gilliam has always been that dreamer. And so have I.
And that's why this movie made me sad. It's both an ode and a swansong to the world of dreamers. Moving along the same lines as the fantastical Baron Munchausen or the embellishing of Tim Burton's Big Fish, Don Quixote mixes fantasy with reality, fiction with fact and gives both hope and warning to dreamers in this world. It's not without its flaws. But reality never is.
Skinshark
Maybe it helps to be familiar with Terry Gilliam's canon of work. But as a whole The Man Who Killed Don Quixote is a multi-layered story of the Ages of Man. The Dreamer and the Raconteur living in parallel lives.What's fascinating is how the meanings of each of the characters and their story arcs fold into each other from the director, Terry Gilliam's own life to Adam Driver, playing a Gilliam figure all the way to Jonathan Pryce's man who's seemingly lost his mind. Part of me wonders how much of this is a farcical documentary or auto-biography.Still as heady as it can be it still entertains. The acting is great, the characters are fully realized and the settings, cinematography and production design are signature styles of Gilliam: hand-crafted to bend to the will of his vision...as mad as it may be.This is not a run-of-the-mill linear movie. It's not a popcorn flick. There's a lot to interpret and involve the audience so, don't expect instant gratification. To a lot of reviewers it seems they were overwhelmed by an unclear story. Which that may be true for those who don't want to be involved in the story. It asks a bit of self-reflection, it asks a bit of trust that the characters, working on several levels of psychosis, dreams, hallucinations and madness will all come to a natural conclusion in their story arcs and bring the global story of the film into one single point of focus:We all had dreams once and we got lost. We may remember those dreams in our middle-age and yet in our old age we may become consumed by the dream to point of dreaming of our own existence.If you like BRAZIL or THE IMAGINARIUM OF DOCTOR PARNASSUS you will like this film.