It is a shame how a movie treatment can be made of a world-renowned character, like Ms Fossey, that bears very little relationship to the person she was, as portrayed both by her own book and the books written about her.
Her character remains unknown in this movie. And I've watched it for a second time now, to see if the first frustration with which I viewed it, when it was first released, had left me. No, it hadn't. It starts off poorly, with a fictionalized account of how Fossey met Louis Leakey, the famed anthropologist and how she begs him for a job. Simply not true. Fossey had already been to Africa at the time she met Leakey and he was the one who asked her to go there and work with the endangered gorillas, then numbering well under a 100. I don't even see the benefit of making this autobiographical change to the story. Fossey's motivation for going on this hazardous mission, leaving a fiancé in the U.S. is never explored. Was she is in love, as some speculate, with Leakey? Her love and interest in the gorillas is never in doubt and in real-life her obsession consumed her such that her eccentricity became sociopathic to the degree that her distrust of humans encompassed anyone who crossed her path from her students to the government of Rwanda.
Her relationship with the National Geographic photographer is unfortunately Hollywoodized here and does not reach the intellectual level of harmony that they had in real life, they knew from the beginning , because of their individual interests and pursuits, that it was doomed to short-term, but celebrated the "in the moment" aspect of it. This could have been portrayed on screen a lot better.
The shift to sociopathic personality, about halfway through the movie is too sudden to ring true and the ending feels rushed and "let's get it over with already". Her murder was appalling and undeserved but she had made many enemies, not the least of whom were her students from whom she demanded servility and unquestioning obedience.
Sadly, I think she was ill-served in this bio-pic, perhaps a deeper psychological exploration of her character will be made at some point.
However, the gorilla filming was breathtaking.
6 out of 10.
Her character remains unknown in this movie. And I've watched it for a second time now, to see if the first frustration with which I viewed it, when it was first released, had left me. No, it hadn't. It starts off poorly, with a fictionalized account of how Fossey met Louis Leakey, the famed anthropologist and how she begs him for a job. Simply not true. Fossey had already been to Africa at the time she met Leakey and he was the one who asked her to go there and work with the endangered gorillas, then numbering well under a 100. I don't even see the benefit of making this autobiographical change to the story. Fossey's motivation for going on this hazardous mission, leaving a fiancé in the U.S. is never explored. Was she is in love, as some speculate, with Leakey? Her love and interest in the gorillas is never in doubt and in real-life her obsession consumed her such that her eccentricity became sociopathic to the degree that her distrust of humans encompassed anyone who crossed her path from her students to the government of Rwanda.
Her relationship with the National Geographic photographer is unfortunately Hollywoodized here and does not reach the intellectual level of harmony that they had in real life, they knew from the beginning , because of their individual interests and pursuits, that it was doomed to short-term, but celebrated the "in the moment" aspect of it. This could have been portrayed on screen a lot better.
The shift to sociopathic personality, about halfway through the movie is too sudden to ring true and the ending feels rushed and "let's get it over with already". Her murder was appalling and undeserved but she had made many enemies, not the least of whom were her students from whom she demanded servility and unquestioning obedience.
Sadly, I think she was ill-served in this bio-pic, perhaps a deeper psychological exploration of her character will be made at some point.
However, the gorilla filming was breathtaking.
6 out of 10.