"Waking the Dead" is a film that didn't do particularly well when it was first released. However, over time it's gained a small following of folks who love the movie...and it's obvious when you read through the reviews that some just adore it. I tried, but just didn't enjoy the movie like they did, though I have to admit that the film was creative and had an interesting style.
The story involves a young man named Fielding Pierce (Billy Crudup) and his obsession with a girlfriend (Jennifer Connelly) who was apparently killed in Chile during the time of the Pinochet coup. In the years that followed, Fielding goes further and further in politics...and loses more and more contact with a healthy reality as he's obsessed with her memory. He even things he's seen her at one point and whether or not he did and what happens next can be interpreted various ways.
So why didn't I love it? Well, two main reasons. First, while the film had a lovely style, it also moved glacially slow...too slow for me. Second, and much more important, is that I couldn't really understand Fielding's obsession with her since the two were so different...much like how Robert Redford and Barbra Streisand were different in "The Way We Were"...it just was too different to make the obsession seem reasonable. It also didn't help that Crudup often acted as if he was a zombie...and you wonder HOW he could get anywhere in politics and WHO would support him. Sorry...and interesting idea that just didn't appeal to me.
The story involves a young man named Fielding Pierce (Billy Crudup) and his obsession with a girlfriend (Jennifer Connelly) who was apparently killed in Chile during the time of the Pinochet coup. In the years that followed, Fielding goes further and further in politics...and loses more and more contact with a healthy reality as he's obsessed with her memory. He even things he's seen her at one point and whether or not he did and what happens next can be interpreted various ways.
So why didn't I love it? Well, two main reasons. First, while the film had a lovely style, it also moved glacially slow...too slow for me. Second, and much more important, is that I couldn't really understand Fielding's obsession with her since the two were so different...much like how Robert Redford and Barbra Streisand were different in "The Way We Were"...it just was too different to make the obsession seem reasonable. It also didn't help that Crudup often acted as if he was a zombie...and you wonder HOW he could get anywhere in politics and WHO would support him. Sorry...and interesting idea that just didn't appeal to me.