tgkohn

Written as though the original tone and plot are unimpeachable, with even the dialogue closely paralleled to the text, this twelve-hour presentation has little soul and no joie de vivre. Viewing this at a remove of 45 years, the direction, cinematography, and set design present little original or incisive; the acting choices remain staid and unpersuasive with little remarkable, even in the heightened moments of conflict. Obviously made for television and, likely, proposed as a teaching aid for younger readers of the German original or its translations, I fear that the four-CD series would offput anyone from reading far into the far better novel.

I sat through the first 40 minutes of this film, getting more exasperated at the on-the-nose dialog and the mediocre acting. By the time Tom/Thomas meets his two female companions without reason for hanging together, I decided it was time for me to leave.

I don't believe that a reputable university film program would allow this film to pass as a junior project. If it were to be awarded production, at least one more rewrite would be necessary to clarify the points without banging the audience with direct explanations.