Ceticultsot
Beautiful, moving film.
Glucedee
It's hard to see any effort in the film. There's no comedy to speak of, no real drama and, worst of all.
Megamind
To all those who have watched it: I hope you enjoyed it as much as I do.
lkil
ATTENTION, POTENTIAL VIEWERS! Some possible SPOILERS follow:Philip Ridley has produced a genuinely poetic yet nightmarish piece in Passion of Darkly Noon. The setting of the film forms perhaps its central part. An almost never-never land in the middle of the lush impenetrable forest. A light cabin with a beautiful and sensual Callie (Ashley Judd) living there day and night and communicating with the primal forces of nature (rain, storm, caves, thickets, springs, etc.) The viewer cannot help but feel inundated by the intensity with which the forces of nature are brought together into a single bundle of some primordial virginity. Darkly (Brendan Frasier) is brought into the "eye of the storm" to be cared for and nurtured back into health. Striking a pose of seductive nymph, Callie unsuspectingly (or maybe not) stirs Darkly's (who is extremely inhibited and repressed) sexual passions. They proceed to escalate uncontrollably. Initially, Darkly is torn by conflicting internal thoughts about how to react to Callie and how to understand his own emotions and urges. Progressively, his "demonic" side takes the upper hand: his "misgivings" about Callie are validated by the nearly insane Roxy (Callie's mother-in-law) who lives as a forest hermit nearby. The end is as frightening as it is purifying and tension-relieving. The film is full of mysterious symbolism and is uncharacteristically replete with ambiguities which remain unsolved throughout. My personal opinion is that this movie should be understood as a fable, a tale of sorts. In a sense, all this happens inside the Darkly's mind and soul. All other images in the film are just the external projections of Darkly's intense internal struggles, his PASSIONS. In terms of its atmosphere, Passion of Darkly Noon has a great deal in common with Maurice Maeterlinck's play Pelleas and Mellisanda (see the beautiful and otherworldly music by Claude Debussy). This movie is truly enchanted and enchanting. Could be watched many, many times for this quality alone. One of the best in its genre. See another Philip Ridley's movie Reflecting Skin -- equally bizarre, stunning atmospherics, wonderfully disturbing yet beautiful imagery.
eetstatik
Ahh, Christ! I am so sick of movies like these. You know the type, filled with lots of symbolism that fails to symbolize anything other than the director being more concerned for his reputation as an "artist," than the audience understanding his message or feeling engaged by the story. Some of this symbolism goes to theextremes of being laughable, such as, (PERHAPS A MINOR SPOILER, but idoubt it) a giant, mirrored shoe floating down the river.
What's truly worse is this had the potential of being a very interesting drama, as Darkly Noon, a manchild raised in a religiously fanatical household wrestleswith his attraction to married woman, is ruined by the writer/director's self- indulgence. He feels the need to throw lots of shallow ideas at us, hoping we will find him brilliant and ignore that he does not even seem to know what he is trying to say or even how to tell the story. What truly makes me upset is that this is the type of movie brainwashed art- house whores are willing to gravel over self-righteously. They are willing to stand in line like sheep and sing the praises of a movie they don't understand, going on and on about how it goes against the "Evil Hollywood System," thenew catch-all category for everyone who feels like complaining; this complaint has become the equivalent of film-school rejects who do poor work, turn it in late, and when they are given their deservingly terrible grade, scream and holler they are not being understood for the "true artist they really are." That everyone else is just "unsophisticated." Well, Hollywood may give us lots of garbage, but at least they don't wrap their trash in boring, pretensious stabs at meaningdesigned less for thinking audiences and more for self-obsessed "intellectuals," whom like to show off how smart they think they are. If you want a film thatcreates a thoroughly engaging, entertaining, and meaningful drama throughuse of surreal imagery try Neil Jordan's The Butcher Boy. Normally, i'm not this mean to a film, but when i get slapped in the face, i feel abliged to return the favor.
toby5634
this movie is actually the worst movie ever made... i know people have told you that "plan nine from outerspace" was the worst movie ever made, come to think of it i think that was the tagline... but "the passion of darkly noon by far blows it away with its awfull acting, terrible story, unexplaned occurances, and it's massive quantities of unimportant crap that is thrown in there to make you think your drunk. the first tiem i saw this i actually was drunk... it was on HBO at 3:30 in the morning and i was laughing my head off because it was soo silly. i tried to blame the s***ty story on my drunkness but when i saw it again, sober, i was sadly mistaken. this movie is crap. i did buy this movie just to show it to people and make them hate brenden frasier. you lose all respect you ever had for him after watching this.
phiggins
Oh dear. This is such a dreadful movie. The guy from "The Mummy" and Ashley Judd - together at last. I've said it before, and I'll say it again - there has never been a good movie with the aforementioned Ms. Judd in it. Her career consists entirely of inept, banal, stupid movies. "Darkly Noon" is perhaps the zenith of her miserable little filmography, being pretentious and witless, "arty" and crass, cringe-inducing and hysterically funny (for all the wrong reasons). Take, as an example of this movie's momentous ineptitude, the final scene (one of my favourite in all movies), when the shoe floats downstream. Oh dear God, this is film-making as torture, as punishment, as though we, the hapless audience, have committed some crime and must be forced to watch deep and meaningful nonsense for the rest of our lives. Please, if you really think this is a good film, read a few books (preferably ones without pictures) and see a few genuinely intelligent movies. Soon. Hurry up! Time is running out!
