The Artist

I saw this a couple of nights ago and I'm surprised there's no thread on it. Or maybe I'm not. There were only 2 other people in the theater aside from my wife and myself when we went to see it. I probably wouldn't have gotten around to it if so many people I respect hadn't harped on me to go see it.

It was amazing. It was unbelievable how much things popped in black and white. It was also incredible how intense the music was. Not just when it was playing, but when it wasn't. Man, those silences were the most deep and profound silences. Everything about it was so striking and I found myself welling up with tears at so many points throughout.

It certainly had some flaws though. There were a handful of things that seemed slightly period inappropriate, but nothing that really bothered me. There were also some things that were just not explained and rather dealt with in a hand waving fashion, but I suppose that's a conceit they had to have to better focus the narrative.

Part of me knows I should be barfy about the whole love story angle in general, but I let that go. The biggest problem for me was that I couldn't stop thinking "first world problems" throughout so much of the movie. However, I don't know if that's really a problem because they payoff in the ending made it incredible. I made the whole movie suddenly make sense... and right when I thought it was going to have a saccharine ending. The ending hit me really hard. It was incredible.

Excellent film, really enjoyed it and I left the cinema grinning like an idiot afterwards. The bit where they start to fall for each other over repeated takes of the same scene is so well done in the little differences every time. If I had to pick out a flaw it's the pacing is a bit off, there's maybe too much time taken with George's decline (SPOILER)plus he hits what seems to be his lowest point, then reaches an even lower point afterwards, which feels awkward. But I really can't recommend this enough and I hope it walks off with the major Oscars next month.

I agree about the pacing a bit. I also absolutely loved the scene you mentioned and it had an amazing pay off later in the hospital. Even though I knew as soon as he clutched the reel that that was what he was saving, when she opened it and began to look at it I was absolutely struck with how powerful that moment had to be for her.