Movie Reviews - Chromophobia

Ok, what to you get when you take performances from Penelope Cruz, Ralph Fiennes, Kristen Scott-Thomas, Ian Holm, Rhys Evans, Ian Holm, Damian Lewis and Ben Chaplin? Well, not much to tell you the truth.

I took some time out last night to sit and watch Chromophobia. I'd actually read a few reviews as well that said something pretty similar to my comments above but then I thought to myself, surely with this cast there must be something on offer? Maybe they're all wrong and i'll find a hidden gem of the british film industry? Well, I was certainly wrong about that.

Now I know for a fact that Fiennes, Scott-Thomas, Cruz, Holm and Evans can all hold their own on screen. So why was I left wishing that characters would just drop dead? I couldn't care less if they were all engulfed in a freak occurance of spontaneous human combustion.

As writer and director it would appear that the blame should lie with Martha Fiennes and obviously whoever else saw this film before launch should foot some of the blame. It almost looks like someone's just watched Crash or Magnolia and thought, wouldn't it be good to do one of these films where the sub-string plots all come together at the end! It obviously takes a tremendous amount of skill to pull these kind of movies off and I think the most difficult part is to make you care for all of the characters despite the shorter scene time of each and the congestion of the movie.

The only saving grace is that some of the cast still manage to show that even when they've been given rubbish, they can still come up with the goods. Most notable is Evans who i'd watched in "Not Only but Always" (Which I thoroughly recommend you see) over the festive period and I have to say that the guy is a class act.

I must admit that the jury is still out on Damian Lewis, who although putting in a good turn in Band of Brothers, has done little since. I think he might be more convincing as an american lead than the english gent that he keeps on getting stuck with. As for Ben Chaplin, he should never have left Game On!

Comedy writers such as Simon Pegg seem to be propping up the british film industry at the moment along with the odd period drama. I find it a great shame because there's no doubt that the talent's out there. We should be churning out "Constant Gardeners", not this rubbish...