shomethemovie

I thought Sorvino and Foley were cute and fun, and it was cool to see Omar Sharif. I got a laugh out of the fight scenes, which were basically done by turning out the lights and adding grunt and crash sounds. The supporting characters could have received their lines five minutes before shooting, along with a subtle admonition like "Let the audience know you're a bad guy." The story line was silly and, as in many of these adventures, gave little evidence that characters were entry-level competent in their fields while insisting they were life-long world-class experts. And yes, there were the bathtub scenes. All that said, I found "Templar" infinitely more entertaining than either The Da Vinci Code or the last Indiana Jones installment. Those made me sad and disappointed! This - you don't get mad at a Twinkie for not being creme brulee.

An aficionado of music and styles of the 30's and 40's, I couldn't wait to see this movie and was ready to love it. So many elements were there - the premise, the characters, flawless casting from the leads to the supporting actors, and evocative and charming look and sound. But for a truly engaging "screwball comedy with a heart" the story and dialogue were often painfully clumsy. Worse, drawn-out mugging by the usually wonderful McDormand and Adams (in supposedly farcical situations) wasn't funny and made the pace positively lurch along, clearly the fault of the direction and editing. By the time there were some enchanting and poignant moments - which only intensified my disappointment over what might have been - the audience seemed frankly bored. They never laughed and filed out at the end with ruefull shrugs. Miss Pettigrew was as pleasant and inoffensive as your great-aunt Mabel, but it should have left everyone wiping a tear while doing a little two-step out the door to the jaunty end-title music. I'm very surprised at the enthusiasm of the majority of the reviewers, but good for them if they enjoyed it.