❝Pull yourself together. Remorse is for the weak and weakness is the source of all evil on this Earth.❞
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I usually really like espionage thrillers, especially ones set in the past, but The Secret Agent was a tough film to get through. The opening was pretty good, but the plot quickly became very convoluted and jumbled, and didn't pick up again until twenty minutes or so before the end. I haven't read the original novel by Joseph Conrad, so perhaps the film is just following its source material, but in my opinion the story was very dull for the most part. Acting-wise, I really liked Christian Bale's performance as Stevie, but he had very limited screen-time and felt underutilised. Patricia Arquette was also excellent as Winnie, and her acting in the scenes leading up to her crime was fantastic. Robin Williams had some good moments, too, but like Bale he only had a couple of minutes throughout the film to make an impression. The costumes and sets were nicely done, and I liked the score, but the cinematography was a bit lacking. Overall, I don't think I'd recommend this unless you're interested in seeing an adaptation of the novel, and I'm not sure I'd revisit it in the future, either.
❝Pull yourself together. Remorse is for the weak and weakness is the source of all evil on this Earth.❞
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I usually really like espionage thrillers, especially ones set in the past, but The Secret Agent was a tough film to get through. The opening was pretty good, but the plot quickly became very convoluted and jumbled, and didn't pick up again until twenty minutes or so before the end. I haven't read the original novel by Joseph Conrad, so perhaps the film is just following its source material, but in my opinion the story was very dull for the most part. Acting-wise, I really liked Christian Bale's performance as Stevie, but he had very limited screen-time and felt underutilised. Patricia Arquette was also excellent as Winnie, and her acting in the scenes leading up to her crime was fantastic. Robin Williams had some good moments, too, but like Bale he only had a couple of minutes throughout the film to make an impression. The costumes and sets were nicely done, and I liked the score, but the cinematography was a bit lacking. Overall, I don't think I'd recommend this unless you're interested in seeing an adaptation of the novel, and I'm not sure I'd revisit it in the future, either.
