The Color of Time

Greetings again from the darkness. It's either a most unusual biopic on Pulitzer Prize winning poet CK Williams, an example of how director Terrence Malick has influenced the next wave of filmmakers, or a self-congratulatory exercise disguised as a class project. Regardless of your final take, most cinephiles will muster at least a modicum of interest in a film with 11 directors and 12 writers … each NYU film students during James Franco's time on campus as an adjunct professor.

We see the life of CK Williams through the flashbacks and memories of James Franco (as an adult Williams prepping for a reading of "Tar"). Williams as a child, as an adolescent, and as a college student (played by Henry Hopper, son of Dennis) offer a glimpse into the girls and events that helped shape his poetry. The sequence of Williams as a child is so similar to Malick's Tree of Life, that we viewers experience our own flashbacks … right down to Jessica Chastain recreating her scenes from that movie (this time as Williams' mother).

Mila Kunis plays Catherine, Williams' second and current wife, and it's clear – in a modern expressionist kind of way – that they are very happy together. There are a couple of disjointed sequences that come across as created simply to provide an outlet for Zach Braff and Bruce Campbell. However, when dealing with poetry, rules don't apply … at least that seems to be what this group of young filmmakers would have us believe. The washed out colors, fuzzy focus, shots of nature, and muted emotions dotted with monotone dialogue are all elements of artsy films. Whether these are the foundations of artsy films is a separate topic. Interspersed throughout are a couple of clips of CK Williams with his own readings.

Experimental filmmaking is always a risk and should not be discouraged. It's given us every advance in the medium for a century. It is a bit worrisome, however, when experimental film appears so similar to the work of a current master. Let's hope that's just the first step in the process of developing filmmakers. This one also acts as a reminder that turning poetry into actual images often defeats the purpose of the written words.

Well, I cannot say that I have read any poems by the poet this supposed biography makes a record of. I did start watching it with my lady fair and, hence, saw great potential for an evening of respite and romance... after all, surely a poetic movie will 'do the trick'? Sigh... after ten minutes, my impatient partner pulled the video out of the machine. Sigh, so ,hence, I cannot write a 'spoiler' since I do not know if this poet nixed himself from boredom in the end... Darn! Now I will have to research Wikipedia to find out the real story of an apparently perverted but boring and snoring life's, if movies are to be believed. If one cannot make it past the first ten minutes, why even a '3' for this thing? Oh, I might have watched it to see how much truth there is to it. But, sadly, never got anywhere near to understanding the reason behind this movie in the first place. Lesson to movie producers out there? If you are making a movie for arts sake then let the populace know that its purpose is not to entertain... this one seemed intended to drag people away from the story of poetry by immersing us in the poems and not the real life story...That movie about Stephen Hawking did not immerse us into Hawking's every living moment and astounding words. By trying to do this with this poet, the movie failed.

The story is not clear and the meaning behind it is not there. the cast is fine since we do not know the plot so we can not judge here right!

trying to tell a story based on a poem is a bit hard but may be they could fill in some gaps would make the entire experience much better.

A boring movie that the creators thought would be cool, just because of the cool actors. The movie sounds like and endless poem, which many times repeats itself. There's basically no story, everything moves extremely slowly and the music makes it sad for no apparent reason. Of course it's one of those movies, many people would say it's artistic, therefore you should watch it. I'd say, don't watch it.

Not on Poe that is and something that might have helped me (maybe others too?) to figure out what it (the movie) was trying to do here. As it is and without any knowledge going into this, I had no clue what to expect. It is clear that everything is kinda connected, but I'm pretty sure the poems themselves make much more sense and are a lot more gripping than the way the movie portray the stories.

The acting cast on hand is good, but feel as disconnected as the rest of the movie most of the time. Maybe if you have read the poems it'll be easier and more enjoyable or maybe this will float your boat no matter what. But I reckon a majority will find this "boring" (or annoying, depending on your mood maybe both). As it is, this slow paced drama is just above the water ...