"Faraway, So Close!" is a glorious mess of a movie. It's as if writer/director Wim Wenders threw in every idea he discarded from the first iteration of the story, "Wings of Desire." The earlier film was a taut masterpiece, a fantasy and a love story. It was both popular and well received by the critics.
This time we have flashbacks to World War II, a heist, homages to Carl Dreyer and Jean Vigo, and a lot of loose ends. This film did well at Cannes but met with a lukewarm critical reception and was not quite as successful at the box office.
But despite its daunting two-and-a-half-hour runtime, it's a good, watchable film. Just don't go expecting something quite as marvelous as "Wings of Desire."
This time we have flashbacks to World War II, a heist, homages to Carl Dreyer and Jean Vigo, and a lot of loose ends. This film did well at Cannes but met with a lukewarm critical reception and was not quite as successful at the box office.
But despite its daunting two-and-a-half-hour runtime, it's a good, watchable film. Just don't go expecting something quite as marvelous as "Wings of Desire."