We were looking forward to this widely acclaimed movie. The fantastic costumes, gorgeous make-up and fabulous stage sets are awesome. Successive introductions of real-life grotesque characters continually perk our our interest. Unfortunately, however,the story- lines dawdles and shrivel prematurely. Large doses of European cultural Viagral subsidies never really get the movie going. The 3 unconnected surreal 17th century fables by the famed Giambatista Basile (the first European to write down Cindirella and Rapunzel) were sliced and spliced haphazardly by a stoned rookie's so-called attempt at editing. A mini-trilogy sequence would perhaps have been a better choice to address the many facets of the interplay between what men and women desire and how fate thwarts their best plans. This would have spared us the confusion of Kings and Queens ruling over the same kingdom. It would have spared us the expectation that the stories would somehow come together with a clever twist at the end. The fables superficially seem as pointless as a toddler's box of crayons. But they are not moral plays - they just illustrate out human foibles with cartoon like exaggeration. Only one story ends happily ever after. One other ends badly, the other just stops. With professional editing this glorious failure could have been a classic.
Review of Tale of Tales
