Winter's Tale (2014)
Fantasy-romance spanning centuries, set in both 1916 and modern-day Manhattan. Colin Farrell is a burglar who falls for an heiress (Downton Abbey’s Jessica Brown Findlay), who tragically dies in his arms. When he discovers the ability to reincarnate, he devotes himself to finding a way to reunite with his love.
Peter (Farrell) is a master thief who never expected to have his own heart stolen by the beautiful Beverly (Brown Findlay). But their love is star-crossed: she burns with a deadly form of consumption, and Peter has been marked for a violent death by his one-time mentor, the demonic Pearly Soames (Russell Crowe). Peter desperately tries to save his one true love, across time, against the forces of darkness. What Peter needs is a miracle, but only time will tell if he can find one.
Oscar-winning screenwriter Akiva Goldsman (A Beautiful Mind) makes his directorial debut adapting Mark Helprin's 1983 novel.
Reviews & comments
Flicks, Leonie Hayden
flicksWinter’s Tale is a sweet, grown up fairy tale that begs to inspire wonder, but plummets back to earth just as it begins to grow wings. It stars Colin Farrell as Peter Lake, a petty thief in industrial-era New York who becomes an unwitting pawn in a celestial battle for souls. After robbing, then falling in love with, the doomed Beverly (Downton Abbey’s Jessica Brown-Findlay), his demonic former employer Pearly Soames (a stocky Russell Crowe sporting an Irish brogue that borders on the satirical) tries to dispatch them both. With the help of a mysterious white horse, Peter survives to find that miraculously a hundred years have passed and he has become a bearded drifter with no memory of his past.
Multiple Tales
An interesting mix of different genres in one film and some great performances, especially the chemistry between Colin Farrell and Jessica Brown Findlay, some of the best between two romantic leads in a long time. But what ultimately lets the film down is that it doesn't seem to know what it wants to be, heading in one direction until near the end and then...
The Adult Fairy-tale.
A really sweet and nice movie that is easy to watch and straight to the point. The actors are fantastic and the film has just the right mix of romance and magic to create and adult friendly fairy tale. A great film that will leave you walking away feeling light and happy with a smile on your face.
Variety
pressA cloying, sledgehammer-subtle adaptation of Mark Helprin's vastly richer novel.
Time Out
pressSince this marks the directorial debut of Hollywood hack Akiva Goldsman (A Beautiful Mind), there’s a heavy foot applied to the era-skipping leaps made by source novelist Mark Helprin.
The New York Times
pressClumsy and inert, a lumbering white elephant rather than the flying white horse that is the novel's magical mascot.
The Dissolve
pressIt’s a greeting card of film, full of platitudes and pleasant imagery, and destined to be thrown in a drawer and forgotten in short order.
Sydney Morning Herald
pressIt's pretty, with wintry white locations and settings, but made with an unrelentingly heightened atmosphere, every scene a climax drizzled with a treacly score.
Flicks, Leonie Hayden
flicksWinter’s Tale is a sweet, grown up fairy tale that begs to inspire wonder, but plummets back to earth just as it begins to grow wings. It stars Colin Farrell as Peter Lake, a petty thief in industrial-era New York who becomes an unwitting pawn in a celestial battle for souls. After robbing, then falling in love with, the doomed Beverly (Downton Abbey’s Jessica Brown-Findlay), his demonic former employer Pearly Soames (a stocky Russell Crowe sporting an Irish brogue that borders on the satirical) tries to dispatch them both. With the help of a mysterious white horse, Peter survives to find that miraculously a hundred years have passed and he has become a bearded drifter with no memory of his past.
Variety
pressA cloying, sledgehammer-subtle adaptation of Mark Helprin's vastly richer novel.
Time Out
pressSince this marks the directorial debut of Hollywood hack Akiva Goldsman (A Beautiful Mind), there’s a heavy foot applied to the era-skipping leaps made by source novelist Mark Helprin.
The New York Times
pressClumsy and inert, a lumbering white elephant rather than the flying white horse that is the novel's magical mascot.
The Dissolve
pressIt’s a greeting card of film, full of platitudes and pleasant imagery, and destined to be thrown in a drawer and forgotten in short order.
Sydney Morning Herald
pressIt's pretty, with wintry white locations and settings, but made with an unrelentingly heightened atmosphere, every scene a climax drizzled with a treacly score.
Multiple Tales
An interesting mix of different genres in one film and some great performances, especially the chemistry between Colin Farrell and Jessica Brown Findlay, some of the best between two romantic leads in a long time. But what ultimately lets the film down is that it doesn't seem to know what it wants to be, heading in one direction until near the end and...
The Adult Fairy-tale.
A really sweet and nice movie that is easy to watch and straight to the point. The actors are fantastic and the film has just the right mix of romance and magic to create and adult friendly fairy tale. A great film that will leave you walking away feeling light and happy with a smile on your face.
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