★★☆☆☆
15 June 2017
A movie review of RETURN TO MONTAUK. |
“She was the great chance I had,” Max Zorn (Stellan Skarsgård)
Opening on a monologue by Max, he talks regret. The whole film concerns the topic. RETURN TO MONTAUK is a melodrama, which hardly hits the high notes. Worse than trawling through such an endeavour, is one where a classy cast is squandered. Skarsgård is a performer so easy to listen to. You know how talented he is when he elevated the dire KING ARTHUR (2004). Nina Hoss is always engaging, emitting icy intelligence. The combination of the two thesps raised anticipation levels in advance. Disappointment ensued.
Opening on a monologue by Max, he talks regret. The whole film concerns the topic. RETURN TO MONTAUK is a melodrama, which hardly hits the high notes. Worse than trawling through such an endeavour, is one where a classy cast is squandered. Skarsgård is a performer so easy to listen to. You know how talented he is when he elevated the dire KING ARTHUR (2004). Nina Hoss is always engaging, emitting icy intelligence. The combination of the two thesps raised anticipation levels in advance. Disappointment ensued.
Day one titled across the screen, Wednesday, celebrated author Max is on a publicity tour in New York, visiting from Europe. He is in America for a week, leaving on Tuesday. The counting of days does not add to the uneven tension on display. Time ticking is of course entwined with remorse. Nothing of insight is offered up to the audience.
There might have at least been on screen frisson. Chemistry is absent between Max and the rest of the cast:
- Wife, Clara (Susanne Wolff), is publicist at the publisher of Max’s book. The couple give off the vibe of being strangers (not in an intriguing way).
- Love of his life, Rebecca (Nina Hoss), is a high-flying attorney. Their awkward first encounter, after 17 years, suggests a relationship full of history that the film does not deliver on.
- Father figure, Walter (Niels Arestrup), perhaps meant to be a mysterious multi-millionaire/billionaire, comes across as poorly sketched.
The film makes little sense. It reminds of COSMOPOLIS, similarly feeling like the makers don't have a handle on the topic. (Maybe that’s unfair?) There’s the mega wealthy who lets uber-valuable art deteriorate. Wife Clara lives in squalor to Max’s surprise. He bizarrely does not know anything about her.
There is an anti-climatic trip to the titular Montauk, Long Island. All the players are grating company for too much of the runtime. Max is a guy who leaves emotional destruction in his wake, though the story is not in the same league as THE GLASS MENAGERIE.
As the movie began, one thought this might be a modern take on THE AGE OF INNOCENCE: True love thwarted. RETURN TO MONTAUK turns out to be a laboured melodrama. Lots of charisma, but revelations and gravitas underwhelm.
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