EssenceStory Well Deserved Praise

Tetrady not as good as all the hype

AnhartLinkin This story has more twists and turns than a second-rate soap opera.

Luecarou What begins as a feel-good-human-interest story turns into a mystery, then a tragedy, and ultimately an outrage.

Armand are central target. meeting with Oleg Inkovski, Cate Blanchette or Christina Ricci. the ash of a world. Taraful de la Clejani. A Johnny Depp as new kind of Gypsy. a love story, need of sense for a world, cages, touching motive of Cuore and some attention for details. that is all. but each part is seed of drawing for subtle painting. painting of feelings, desires and masks of freedom. it is not a continent. only few isles who may be paper boats or shadows. but it is a beautiful film. exercise to reveal small things who creates sense. drops of fights against yourself. and flavor, subtle flavor of courage and hope.a film about lost worlds and dead time. delicate picture of fall. and beginning. map of a travel. and good occasion to imagine beauty more than accident.

Quebec_Dragon First of all, try to avoid the trailer before watching the movie if you can. The Man Who Cried is about a young Jewish girl living in Russia in the late twenties who has to flee her home country and eventually ends up in Paris as a young adult just before the onset of World War II. She gets involved with a cabaret showgirl played by Cate Blanchett, an Italian opera singer played by John Turturro and a gypsy man played by Johnny Depp. I found the movie slow-moving but not boring. It had a certain melancholy to it where almost everything was restrained and understated. There are dramatic moments but no big melodrama which honestly I kinda missed. I wasn't particularly touched nor did I cry or even get teary-eyed. Your own mileage might vary, but I don't think it's a big tear-jerker.There's a lot of music (mostly opera but not usually the bombastic cliché kind) in this film with two important recurring songs. They're quite beautiful especially the french song "Je crois entendre encore" which weirdly I didn't recognize as French despite it being my native language. The songs are important because they often convey the emotions felt instead of words. It doesn't really matter that you don't understand the words. As an historical drama, it mostly skirts big events, mostly focusing on their effects on our characters from different nationalities. You need some minimal historical background to get what is happening. The whole first part with the exile of the little girl was pretty gripping. She seemed so small and vulnerable. The romantic aspect was two-fold. The relationship between Cate Blanchett and John Turturro's characters was very interesting but not romantic. The relationship between Christina Ricci and Johnny Depp's characters was less interesting but more romantic.Johnny Depp doesn't say much but his presence is felt. He was born to play sexy gypsy men and I suspect most women will "swoon" over him ;) The other performances were fine with the stand-out being Cate Blanchett as a somewhat superficial Russian dancer trying to marry into richness. The songs were mostly lip-synched. I think they were done very well but still it disturbed somewhat my suspension of disbelief. In conclusion, I liked watching it, it was well made with strong actors but the story could have been told a little better to engage the viewer more emotionally. It didn't strike me as particularly memorable or as the highlight of any of these actor's resumes.Rating: 6.5 out of 10 (good)

Henry Fields I really don't know what was the purpose of Sally Potter when she made this movie. She begins telling the story of this Russian girl (CHristina Ricci) that has to go into exile in England and that's looking for her father. But Potter deflects the attention again and again to some irrelevant characters. Her script is quite imprecise and the way she shoots is sometimes pretentious and pompous, What's more remarkable about "The man who cried" is the performance of John Turturro (he perfectly plays an Italian opera singer) and Cate Blanchett. Christina Ricci is not specially brilliant (she can do better than that), and Johnny Depp is starting to make me sick with that silent-full-of-inner-life character.The music lovers will enjoy the soundtrack of the movie, but I don't think that's a good reason to watch this movie.*My rate: 3/10

hoarnb This film wasted the talents of several terrific actors; most notably, John Turtorro, Cate Blanchette, Johnny Depp and Harry Dean Stanton. Christina Ricci was serviceable, but was probably miscast. The direction/editing I found very choppy which made the film difficult to follow as it marred the pacing. It appears that the budgeting did not take into account spending adequate money or time on the editing portion of the film. I also felt that the plot was erratic and never fully developed characters as it should have. Cate Blanchette as Lola turned in her typical great acting with a flawless Russian accent, but it was difficult to know where she fit into the larger plot at times. Turturro's character was sort of a caricature of an Opera Diva and he was laughable at times especially when protesting being upstaged by horses. Overall the film was visually well done but fell flat in substance.