Gore Verbinski

Don't let the scores of lackluster sequels tarnish the memory of it: "The Curse of the Black Pearl" remains one of the very best adventure films I've seen, bar none. It has wit, clever plotting, memorable characters, and a main theme so ridiculously catchy and stirring it could make just about anyone briefly consider taking up piracy. Warmly recommended.

Overlong and overly studyied tale of a young American executive, Lockhart (Dane DeHaan), who is dispatched to a remote Swiss "wellness" clinic to bring home the company Chairman, who appears to have gone on a extended break. Lockhart finds the clinic located in an ancient, mountaintop castle and built over strange subterranean caverns. The castle is surrounded by legends and is run by the efficiently creepy Volmer (Jason Isaacs). In concert with Hannah (Mia Goth), a young woman he meets at show more the clinic, Lockhart slowly begins to make his way to the heart of a horrific mystery. "A Cure for Wellness" starts off as an intriguing Gothic mystery that sets up a range of questions about the nature of society. It delivers plenty of oblique illusions and Frankenstein references by way of Cronenbergian disease and body horror metaphors, but unfortunately loses sight of the need for mystery and excitement. Long sequences of Lockhart aimlessly wandering corridors and discovering another underground cavern becomes boring rather quickly and sucks the energy out of the film. The film also has a rather obvious revelation and ending that was fairly clear from the halfway point, Dane DeHaan makes for a downbeat and unengaging lead, but luckily Jason Isaacs' hammy theatricality more than makes up for that. Overall "A Cure for Wellness" is an interesting film, with a number of good ideas, that are unfortunately lost in a wandering unfocussed narrative - some sharp editing and the loss of 20 minutes would have improved the film immensely. show less

Could very easily have been a great adventure movie, if they had been a bit harsher in the editing room and cut a lot of the unnecessary stuff. (Unfortunately for a movie with only two female characters, the most blatantly unnecessary stuff mainly surrounds Bonham Carter's character, so had they cut it the film would only have had the one ...) As it is, it's still pretty fun and watchable, and worth it for the amazing fifteen minute remix of the William Tell overture in the finale.

A pet chameleon is thrust into life in the Mojave Desert; or, there's something suspicious about a western town's water shortage.

Wonderfully bizarre. If only the plot could have been half as wonderful and/or bizarre as the rest of the movie.

Concept: C
Story: D
Characters: A
Dialog: A
Pacing: C
Cinematography: A
Special effects/design: A
Acting: B
Music: A

Enjoyment: A

GPA: 3.2/4

(Mar. 2011)