Crimson Peak (B- or 2.5/4 stars)
Released just 2 weeks before Halloween, Guillermo del Toro's gothic melodrama 'Crimson Peak' is perfect for "holiday" viewing. It's eerie, creepy, lavish, stunningly adorned, well-acted, & not lacking in gore {particularly the demented climactic Act}. I just wish there were more scares, more surprises, & something to clog-up the plot holes in the story. Set in Buffalo, NY in the year 1901, aspiring American novelist Edith Cushing (Mia Wasikowska, best known as Wonderland's Alice) is the independent, only child of a wealthy, widowed industrialist, Carter Cushing (the only American in the cast, Jim Beaver). Edith writes haunted tales & has been interested in the supernatural ever since she was visited as a child by the ghost of her late mother, who chillingly warned her to beware of 'Crimson Peak'.
Rich & eligible, Edith enjoys company with caring optometrist, Alan McMichael (Charlie Hunnam, who turned down 50 Shades of Grey to be in this). But then she meets the dashing, ingratiating Thomas Sharpe (Tom Hiddleston, who oozes charm, as well as a conflicted conscience), a penniless British aristocrat who is seeking backing for his 'clay harvesting' mining device {you'll see why later}. While in Buffalo, he is accompanied by his domineering, icy cold older sister, Lady Lucille Sharpe (raven-haired Jessica Chastain). After Edith's father observes, "There's something not quite right about them", there's a grisly murder that is made to look like an accident.
Heiress Edith subsequently marries the seductive Thomas, who then whisks her off to his ancestral estate in barren northern England. It’s a decrepit, decaying 4-story Victorian mansion with a host of problems: a gaping hole in the part of the roof which lies directly above the sprawling foyer, an infestation of black moths, a rickety elevator (to which Edith is forbidden to descend to the basement) and, worst of all, a blood-red clay problem on the property -- goopy crimson clay oozes beneath the floorboards of the home, as well as down the walls, and in the pipes. It soon becomes clear that Lady Lucille holds some dark secrets, and that Thomas is not who he seems to be; particularly when Edith, clutching a flickering candelabra, sees terrifying ghosts haunting the chilly, cavernous hallways of the macabrely ornate mansion.
These 3 major characters are at the center of this story, but none of them are as richly realized as the grandiloquent decaying mansion they inhabit. You name it, it HAS it ... the gigantic, crumbling staircase which looms over the grand foyer, the rattling elevator, snow trickling in from the gaping hole in that roof, gas lamps flickering in the dark, pointed arches, creaking doors, forbidden rooms, secret keys, moaning/groaning corridors, etc, etc.. The more our fragile heroine Edith learns about the family she's married into, why Thomas chose her, why Lucille's malevolent intensity strengthens, why she's feeling weaker by the day, & why ghosts still possess this terrifying home, the more she wants to bolt -- realizing that her late-mother's dire warnings of Crimson Peak hold merit.
The 1st 1/3 of the film is quite good: meeting the mysterious characters & setting a slow-burn mood of dread. The 2nd 1/3 of the film highlights the wonder that is the haunted mansion; truly, it's magnificent, as are the sumptuous 19th c. costumes that everyone dons. But it's also in this 2nd 1/3 where the plot starts to jump off the rails, a bit. Characters start saying or doing things that make no sense with respect to the situation at hand. And scene transitions felt rushed; as if connecting tissue in the narrative was deleted to keep the running time to 2 hours. And by the time the last 1/3 of the film comes around, I'd already given up on the script. The plot was beyond saving, so I tried to enjoy the batsh*t craziness of the proceedings as they devolved into campy, over-the-top, slicey, dicey, stabby, gory mayhem.
'CP' is a fascinating conundrum of a film. It irked me during whole portions, and yet, in retrospect, various images & moments have lingered with me. i.e., the sight of Edith throwing open the front doors of the house to be met by a blast of snow, wind, & blood-red earth; the hideously misshapen ghosts she keeps seeing; the billowing outfits that the cast wears so well as they sprint through the labyrinthine mansion; the giddy absurdity of the gory, blood-soaked climax -- it's all ludricrous, implausible, and yet, darkly funny, as well. I wish I cared more about the characters. But the film is SO enticing & visually rich that it makes it easier to excuse the insultingly undercooked characterizations/story. This film provides a mixed-feeling experience, when it should have been exceptionally spectacular.
Rich & eligible, Edith enjoys company with caring optometrist, Alan McMichael (Charlie Hunnam, who turned down 50 Shades of Grey to be in this). But then she meets the dashing, ingratiating Thomas Sharpe (Tom Hiddleston, who oozes charm, as well as a conflicted conscience), a penniless British aristocrat who is seeking backing for his 'clay harvesting' mining device {you'll see why later}. While in Buffalo, he is accompanied by his domineering, icy cold older sister, Lady Lucille Sharpe (raven-haired Jessica Chastain). After Edith's father observes, "There's something not quite right about them", there's a grisly murder that is made to look like an accident.
Heiress Edith subsequently marries the seductive Thomas, who then whisks her off to his ancestral estate in barren northern England. It’s a decrepit, decaying 4-story Victorian mansion with a host of problems: a gaping hole in the part of the roof which lies directly above the sprawling foyer, an infestation of black moths, a rickety elevator (to which Edith is forbidden to descend to the basement) and, worst of all, a blood-red clay problem on the property -- goopy crimson clay oozes beneath the floorboards of the home, as well as down the walls, and in the pipes. It soon becomes clear that Lady Lucille holds some dark secrets, and that Thomas is not who he seems to be; particularly when Edith, clutching a flickering candelabra, sees terrifying ghosts haunting the chilly, cavernous hallways of the macabrely ornate mansion.
These 3 major characters are at the center of this story, but none of them are as richly realized as the grandiloquent decaying mansion they inhabit. You name it, it HAS it ... the gigantic, crumbling staircase which looms over the grand foyer, the rattling elevator, snow trickling in from the gaping hole in that roof, gas lamps flickering in the dark, pointed arches, creaking doors, forbidden rooms, secret keys, moaning/groaning corridors, etc, etc.. The more our fragile heroine Edith learns about the family she's married into, why Thomas chose her, why Lucille's malevolent intensity strengthens, why she's feeling weaker by the day, & why ghosts still possess this terrifying home, the more she wants to bolt -- realizing that her late-mother's dire warnings of Crimson Peak hold merit.
The 1st 1/3 of the film is quite good: meeting the mysterious characters & setting a slow-burn mood of dread. The 2nd 1/3 of the film highlights the wonder that is the haunted mansion; truly, it's magnificent, as are the sumptuous 19th c. costumes that everyone dons. But it's also in this 2nd 1/3 where the plot starts to jump off the rails, a bit. Characters start saying or doing things that make no sense with respect to the situation at hand. And scene transitions felt rushed; as if connecting tissue in the narrative was deleted to keep the running time to 2 hours. And by the time the last 1/3 of the film comes around, I'd already given up on the script. The plot was beyond saving, so I tried to enjoy the batsh*t craziness of the proceedings as they devolved into campy, over-the-top, slicey, dicey, stabby, gory mayhem.
'CP' is a fascinating conundrum of a film. It irked me during whole portions, and yet, in retrospect, various images & moments have lingered with me. i.e., the sight of Edith throwing open the front doors of the house to be met by a blast of snow, wind, & blood-red earth; the hideously misshapen ghosts she keeps seeing; the billowing outfits that the cast wears so well as they sprint through the labyrinthine mansion; the giddy absurdity of the gory, blood-soaked climax -- it's all ludricrous, implausible, and yet, darkly funny, as well. I wish I cared more about the characters. But the film is SO enticing & visually rich that it makes it easier to excuse the insultingly undercooked characterizations/story. This film provides a mixed-feeling experience, when it should have been exceptionally spectacular.