Spring (2014)

This is a difficult movie to review because it is a sad, romantic, mysterious, horrific, hopeful journey through fears of loneliness and death. Here's what I liked about it: The setting was beautiful. The actors did a nice job in their portrayals of emotion. There weren't many special effects but the effects shown were not over done of cheesy in any way. The story was unique. My dislikes: The reveal/backstory/explanation for the female lead seemed really rushed. So much so, that I had to go back and view it again to make sure I understood what she was all about. There were a few places where I could see what was coming. Even though it was a slow burner, my understanding was that all this was taking place in a week or so. That didn't make much sense to me. Overall, I thought it was decent, creative and rather touching movie. Glad I checked it out.

What starts as a nice, but somewhat soft, attempt at smashing the horror and romance genres together turns into a complete mess once the script makes its third act reveal. As the protagonist stumbles onto the truth at the center of the love story the film abandons any attempts at authenticity and shows a disregard for the craft of writing characters and for finding the most cinematic expression in the narrative. Instead it opts for endless, uninteresting dialogue straight out of a twee CW supernatural TV show, or worse, a Twilight film.The filmmakers are incapable of ramping up to anything cinematically horrible, beautiful, strange, or interesting. So instead of cinema, we get multiple, lengthy, awfully written expositions of the needlessly complicated preternatural occurrence at the center of the film, even though they've visually told us almost everything we need to know early on.And the characterization is the worst part of all of this. We are supposed to believe that the love interest is 2000 years old, but she is the least believable timeless character ever put into a genre piece. 2000 years and still all of the communication skills, gravitas and air of a annoying, immature young adult prevail. My forty six year old wife has a deeper sense of the years she's lived in her general air, than this character has in even the simplest line of dialogue or delivery. We're supposed to believe that our young male protagonist is somehow interesting enough to hold her attention, even though he's a just some cookie-cutter nice guy. She's been in and out of human relationships, presumably with some extraordinary partners, for thousands of years across hundreds of cultures, but this guy somehow has the spark? It's all bereft of the most fundamental imagination.The direction is super competent. The photography, while a little flat when it comes to light, is compositionally strong. For the first two-thirds, the film is able to lock down an interesting tone, despite a heavy reliance on some pretty lame images of insects that are supposed to enhance the creep factor and convey nature's strange permutations, or whatever. But I can't stress this enough, the script is really bad. The dialogue can be painful, and the fact that the filmmakers don't know when to shut up and just let their story be told visually, makes for an arduous viewing on the back half of things.I was really excited about the The Endless. The trailer looks engaging. It's interest in that film which prompted me to try this one, but The Endless has the exact same writers, and that dampens my enthusiasm tremendously. Hopefully there's been some growth between the films.

I'm not sure I have ever seen a movie like SPRING. It is unique in both being a love story and horror/sci-fi, but without the cheesy parts (although it does have a good ending twist). It is filmed with caring and love and it is something you will never have seen before. If for no other reason, that makes it worth watching, but it was quite good as well.The enjoyment of watching is that the movie will keep you guessing throughout and the characters are quite original. The filmmakers cared about the characters and how the audience would feel as they watched the movie. I was quite impressed with all the care and originality shown throughout this movie.

Spring is an exquisite tale. A story of the innocent abroad meeting the wrong the only woman in true Henry James fashion, it uncoils along the Puglian coast in long, broad, carnal lapses that are as much satisfaction than longing for that inaccessible moment, the surrendering of self, the end of the world.Yes it has flaws, mostly useless CGI, but one guesses it is a 21st century thing, a bit like too much gilding in rococo or too many conversations sacrées during the Renaissance. Spring is as much about growing pains that it is about blossoming. But the acting is right and the camera work is fluid. What the story owes to Lovecraft is more than mitigated by things as simple as a bottle of wine, an olive tree, love lost and found.The best movie monsters are those one could actually love. Spring has such one, but holds much more. It has a prey that is human, full bodied and sweet as a Negroamaro. One can not foretell that at the beginning, when the film seems aiming at an Italian rendition of Hostel, but this rare feast is accomplished with near nothing, a bit of alien dialogue, a tree dying to allow the growth of a new one, and the moon over the ocean. It has, of course, the unspeakable, almost unfilmable splendor of Italy.A volcano is erupting at the end, but this is not what is really happening. A couple of sound effects does the trick.This is where the Rite of Spring has led us, gaping, the ocean rolling its indifferent waves, and we feel happy, and amazed, and wiped out. This is a lovely movie.