Hi. Glad I got your attention. Let's just say I'm borrowing some of Ruiz's style by making a bold statement and backing it up with, well, nothing. If you dig analogies, you will understand that rocking your world, as Fight Club purports to do, is hardly a one-sided affair. When worlds are rocked, it is fair that denizens of worlds fight back to restore order. Thus, me.
I am going to disregard the various film-making tropes which Ruiz employs, as I consider them gimmicky filler to thin story. Thin? Truly, variations on a theme. Don't get me wrong, I love such things in music, art, and film; but this film is tedious. Almost two hours here to say what might be said in 30 minutes, "classed up" with trappings. Let me tell you, Orson Welles dances all over this mess. Welles had a sense of humor, apparent in nearly everything he did, and this humor gave proper depth to such classics as The Trial and Citizen Kane, among the many. Greenaway employed art to back his vision. Ruiz is merely tempestuous.
But I don't want to be dismissive. Ruiz is prolific, passionate, and determined. I can't fault that. However, the surrealism he purports to bring, a la Bunuel or Jodorowsky, is of a protégé, not a master.
The best philosophy from Three Crowns Of The Sailor is that money has meaning. For me, this at least deposes any anti-capitalist meanings the Left may derive for drivel. The means of exchange is cash, and the gift is (what?) immortality? I would be better mood for this film is the exchange resulted in something concrete, but the defeatist attitude which the film perpetually resonates seems to whiff of nihilism, and if that is your cup of tea, oh well.
I do not mind the ambiguity of outcomes, but narrative is narrative, and intentional confusion for its own sake doesn't please me. You may ask me, how then do you enjoy Jodorowsky? With effort! Now, surprise! I give the film 7/10 for causing me to write a review at all!
