Seen at...
World to Come (The)
- Director: Mona Fastvold
- Writer: Ron Hansen; Jim Shepard
- Producer: Pamela Koffler; Christine Vachon; Casey Affleck; Carole Baraton
CGiii Comment
Period drama on a tight budget is always going to be an uphill struggle. But, when the story is overly familiar and overtly predictable, that struggle becomes even more arduous.
Obviously, comparisons are going to be made with Ammonite and Portrait of a Lady on Fire - but, that's not where the familiarity ends, Brokeback Mountain seems to have had a rather generous influence on Jim Shephard's short story. His [and Ron Hansen's] script has been overly stretched by the director...there's too much of nothing, scenes of unnecessary domesticity simply slow the film down to a snail's pace.
What this film desperately needed was a bit more grit, spit and grime...they are poor farmers in the back of beyond...with perfect coifs and perfectly polite manners! The many anachronisms are distracting, none more so than the soundtrack...call it Jazz, call it whatever you want, it's cacophonous and out of kilter with the film's mood.
Some short stories should remain short stories, preserving the subjective power of the mind's eye. Mona Fastvold's interpretation seems to contemporise rather than authenticate.
Trailer...
The(ir) Blurb...
1850: in a farm in the State of New York, Abigail and Dyer just lost their only daughter to diphtheria. Still grieving, Abigail meets Tally and her husband Finney, her new neighbors. The two women thus form an increasing bond of intimacy and passionate devotion. Once their husbands start to understand the intensity and nature of their relationship, the situation soon gets out of control.
Cast & Characters
Vanessa Kirby;
Katherine Waterston;
Casey Affleck;
Christopher Abbott;
Andreea Vasile;
Ioachim Ciobanu as Widow Weldon's Son;
James Longshore as Man #1;
Karina Ziana Gherasim as Nellie;
Sandra Personnic-House as Widow Weldon