Ophelia

Forget the pedants, this was a beautiful movie that excelled at reinventing a side of the coin we never saw in Shakespeare’s play. Gorgeous tonality, complexity of character, and a genius dichotomy of man’s luxury of madness as an act of deceit and vengeance, but a woman’s madness as an act of survival. Incredible soundtrack, moving writing, refreshing use of economy in direction, and overall a lovely surprise to watch. Seriously, ignore the pedants.

This movie is one of the worst I’ve ever seen. The storyline was all over the place and half of the storyline didn’t even make sense. The character’s personalities changed so fast, it gave me whiplash. I love Renaissance movies and 18th century movies, but I cannot recommend this one to anyone. It was absolutely awful.

They had a ton of ground to cover in only 2 hours. The result was an incredibly fast pace film that blew through character moments and plot far too quickly. Would have been better has a miniseries than a movie. That being said, it was a well acted and intriguing drama. Daisy Ridley was fantastic.

A retelling of a classic tale, or any literary piece for that matter, is expected to be with relative flaws and by any means does not necessarily have to rival the source material—but rather compliment it by taking as much inspiration as creatively possible. "Ofelia" started off with a premise that's too familiar to be considered extraordinary. Yet with all the films that came before it having the same overused tropes and plotlines, Ofelia manages to unfold from cliché to intriguing, gradually revealing itself as a massive puzzle with missing pieces, and effectively using this facade as a hook to keep you seated and wish for more clues to unravel right before your eyes. But you know the answers are always somewhere in the middle or at the end, and so you wait, albeit impatiently. Because by then, the narrative has developed into an unfamiliar territory. And you crave for more even if doing so means reaching a cul-de-sac. Only a very few, well-crafted films have that "hold", that "charisma". For a film to take off from a cliché base and skyrocket into uncharted heights, then fall back unscathed—is a rarity. It requires just enough mystery and drama to make a very potent concoction—one that stings but not quite kill. Ofelia is one effective genius at that.

Just great, to add a new view and twist on a traditional story.

Interesting idea terrible changes.

Visually it looked good, but it felt stilted. The characters never came to life. It was as if they were wading through emotional molasses and we were looking through a glass darkly. It all felt so removed, it was hard to care what happened to any of them.

Excellent writing, beautiful cinematography and absolutely phenomenal acting!! What a beautifully told version of Ophelia!! I highly recommend watching this film!

They had a ton of ground to cover in only 2 hours. The result was an incredibly fast pace film that blew through character moments and plot far too quickly. Would have been better has a miniseries than a movie. That being said, it was a well acted and intriguing drama. Daisy Ridley was fantastic.

A well acted, visual stunning movie with great locations and sets designs, but was ultimately undone by its hammered progressive message that leads to a happy ending twist that I never thought I would or want to see.