gradyharp
Writer/Director Giuseppe Tornatore ('Cinema Paradiso', 'The Legend of 1900', 'The Best Offer', 'Everybody's Fine') has created a love song to Italy, science, astronomy, writing as an art form, communication and that fragile love between an older professor and a student. In other's hands this combination may come saccharine and a silly treatise on life and whether we die or become part of the universe spirit. Tornatore makes it a sensitive and delicate poem of a film.Amy Ryan (Olga Kurylenko), a young student and stunt woman for films and Ed Phoerum (Jeremy Irons), a highly respected astrophysicist have an affair for 6 years, primarily an affair over distance. When Ed goes out of town, both of them keep in touch by text and video chats. All seems well and carries a light touch of humor as well as longing until Amy discovers Ed died 2 days back due to cancer. But still she receives messages and gifts under the name of Ed. Amy meets Ed's family (Shauna Macdonald, Oscar Sanders) and gradually assimilates with them. She ceases to feel lonely with the frequent input of videos she receives at strange intervals but remains surprised about the mysterious messages and gifts. How Amy copes with her life and how is Ed texting and sending gifts even after his death forms is brought to a satisfying if over long conclusion to the film. Ed suggests that she will find another man and very briefly in the end Amy encounters an old acquaintance Jason (Simon Anthon Johns), suggesting that Ed's last prediction will be fulfilled. Tornatore's writing includes some wonderful information about the stars and the theories of their life span as well as other Astronomical insights and mixes these with love poems that are radiant as delivered by both Irons and Kurylenko. Though the film opens with a passionate love scene we both hear in darkness and eventually see as the film progresses, the remainder of the film is a conversation via cell phone and video and for those of us who have problems with the obsession with those forms of interaction in today's society, Tornatore manages to soften the mechanical emptiness of their use.Ennio Morricone provides the musical score and Fabio Zamarion the exquisite photography of Italy, Scotland, and the UK. The film is in need of some editing but the spirit is there and Tornatore's little gem restores our faith that fine films are still being made.
skyx26
First of all: this is NOT Cinema Paradiso. I need to start with that statement because somehow when you make such a awesome movie like Cinema Paradiso everybody thinks that all the following movies are going to be as good as Cinema Paradiso, and that's a stupid way of thinking. In fact, if you review all the movies directed by Giuseppe Tornatore you will notice that Cinema Paradiso is his highest rated movie, the rest are just OK movies.La Corrispondenza is a good movie, just not as good as Cinema Paradiso, and that is OK because they are different pieces of art, just like The Pieta and the David. So, do yourself a favor and don't watch this movie if you expect another Cinema Paradiso.That being said, I will answer the question in every male's mind: yes, Olga show her tits and that beautiful butt of her's, but focus for a minute, there is more in this movie that female nudity. This is an OK movie, and yes, I did wrote OK and not good. There were material for a good movie but somehow it stays short in almost everything, not reaching it's full potential.The story is about an PhD student and a professor, they have been lovers for the last six years which is a problem because Amy is way younger than Ed.The photography for this movie is really beautiful, York, Edinburgh, and Piemonte impregnates the movie with a melancholic atmosphere, perfect for the setting. Maybe Edinburgh was the weakest location, but it may be just me, and even so it has it's own sparks. While York show us lots of green and earth, and Piemonte lots of blue and water, Edinburgh shine by the grey and the harsh. But there is more in here for the untrained eyes. There is texture, like the wood on the door on Piemonte or the one induced by the water on the lake, also in Piemonte; contrasts, like the water drops in the ground of a rainy city, the character of Ed and the severity of Ed's doctor; light and darkness and the not so subtle hints of hope and despair.The editing was OK, I guess. It's a pretty much straightforward tale, so editing is not so important (as in Inception, for example).Music is between OK and good. Certainly is not the brightest work of Ennio Morricone, but not because is not good, but because it melts so good with the general feeling of the movie that you barely notice the music. It fill the blank spaces with a sweet feeling of sadness, sorrow, loneliness, and lost that are so subtle that are not powerful enough to catch your mind, trapped most of the time by the performance of Olga or the voice and emotion of Irons.The duration of the movie it's OK but, for me, the last 15 minutes were kinda boring. I really wish the movie to end because Tornatore extended the drama a bit too much.The performances range from good to just OK now and then. Let's be clear about something: this is a movie about Olga and Irons, the rest of the cast is just there to fill blank spaces, so I will focus on Olga and Irons. Olga Kurylenko it's more than just a pair of tits and a nice butt, she can act. It was proved back on Hit-man, Max Payne, and Quantum of Solace. Unfortunately, I don't know why she has such bad luck with movies... Anyway, 85% of the movie she delivers a good performance, there is a scene where she is taking a shower and you can see the emptiness in her face, but then again, there is another scene where she is talking about her father and you wish Tornatore pushed her a bit more to get a good performance and not just an OK performance. Jeremy Irons take his acting in a different direction and just like Olga, you can't stop feeling there was something missing. They both feel authentic and plastic at the same time...Now, let's talk about the elephant in the room: the plot. The plot is OK, it's not an original idea but for telling this story you don't need it. It's kinda cheesy, use some clichés here and there, but it's OK. Maybe my biggest problem is the ending, but then again, maybe it's just me (it has a better ending than Blue is the warmest color). The plot is about grief, pain, loss, forgiveness, growing up, healing, getting better, moving forward; but above all, La Corrispondenza is a movie about love, love for your family, for yourself, for your significant other, and it's also a movie about time and how short it is, how much we ignore it and take it for granted not really appreciating it and how much we want to turn it back once it's gone.Now, this is cinema and cinema it's a form of art. Maybe you will not like this movie but if the movie makes you ask questions like: it was fair?, how much is enough?, what would you do in that situation?. If you ask yourself or to other person such questions, then the movie accomplish it's objective: touching your soul.For me this movie is a 8/10, but maybe it's because I have love and lost so I can connect to Amy when she fells into the ground like she lost complete control of her legs. The rest of the world will give to La Corrispondenza a 7.5/10 or maybe even a 7/10.
