A New York Winter's Tale (2014)

Running Time: 1 Hour 55 mins
Genre: Fantasy/Romance
Estimated Budget: $60, 000,000
Estimated Gross (USA 28th Feb): $12, 314,242

Director: Akiva Goldsman
Writer: Akiva Goldsman (Screenplay) Mark Helprin (Novel)
Stars: Colin Farrell, Jessica Brown Findlay, Russell Crowe

I'm very behind on my writing of late; I saw A New York Winter's Tale (or Winter's Tale if your in the USA) weeks ago and I cannot stop thinking about it. This does happen every so often, but rarely. I'll see a film and something about it will stick with me. I have been listening to the score from the film in my car for over a week and am simply enchanted with it. I am currently reading the book, there is a lot to be said for the imagination and the book spurs you on to dream up all the most magnificent images. But there is nothing like seeing your imagination come to life with the visual magic of the cinema screen.

Akiva Goldsman the screenwriter who has given us A Beautiful Mind (2001), I, Robot (2004), The Da Vinci Code (2006) and I Am Legend (2007) to name a few has made his directing début adapting Mark Helprin's 1983 novel of the same name. Now if your a fan of Helprin's novel I must warn you there is little that you will recognise. What Goldsman has done is take a very particular and relatively small section from the epic story and focused or rather adapted that. He has centred his film on the first passage of the great winter epic the beauty and the beast aspect you might say; Colin Farrell is Peter Lake a thief in Manhattan in the early 19th century, he is on the run from a mob of gangsters led by the demonic Pearly Soames (Russell Crowe) he is saved by an otherworldly white horse which takes him to safety. The horse leads him to the house of Beverly Penn (Brown Findlay) a young woman dying from consumption (TB), whilst attempting to rob her house he finds her at home alone and the pair fall in love over a cup of tea. Thus begins a romantic relationship between the two characters with great chemistry on-screen between the leads, despite the obvious age difference.

Now you can see by the poster and the tag line that this is a particular type of movie and the director and stars have themselves stated that to enjoy it you simply need to leave your cynicism at the door. I am very fortunate to be able to do this fairly easily, because of it I seem to enjoy a lot of films many people cannot abide, all the more unfortunate for them. The cast and director are right, you cannot sit through this film and judge it on surface value, it spans time and introduces magic to an otherwise normal world. It has not received the greatest of reactions from either critics or fans of the book, personally I loved the film and having seen it before I read the book I can honestly say that I prefer the film to the book, that is not to say that the book does not have it's merits. It is a epic story with an enormous scale, but I personally find that the simplified and focused story of Peter Lake and Beverly Penn caught my imagination more.

However there is no denying that Goldsman has created a beautiful film, the cinematography in my opinion is spectacular he has given New York a life of its own and after watching the film I wanted to jump onto a plane or a time machine for that matter and travel to the 19th century city portrayed on-screen. The score especially the theme played for the two lovers is magnificent it perfectly captures the nature of the strong but brief relationship and sticks with you after you've left the cinema as all good scores should. The performances in A New York Winter's Tale really struck me; Colin Farrell is obviously comfortable in his native accent and his portrayal of Peter Lake is almost like an extension of himself - excluding the stealing of course. Jessica Brown Findlay was clearly born in the wrong era, coming from Downton Abbey playing Lady Sybil Crawley Branson (my absolute favourite character from the show) she has a natural affinity for playing 19th century women. Her performance as Beverly is a breath of fresh air amid the gangsters and drama, she brings a realistic element to the film despite the magical events surrounding her.

The supporting cast in the form of Jennifer Connelly, William Hurt and the Golden Age beauty Eva Marie Saint are brilliant but brief as the story rushes on focusing intently on Peter Lake and his experiences. My only complaint for this film is that certain characters have been miscast, mainly Russell Crowe as Pearly Soames, he does not seem comfortable in the role and is basically hamming it up. The make-up and effects are great but the Irish (if that is what it is supposed to be) accent does not work, it is rather hard to understand him at times. This and his boss a surprising and miscast cameo (I won't spoil it) bring you out of the experience slightly, something that never helps a film. I believe you should be totally engrossed in a film and if something pulls you out of that trance like excitement and concentration then it does not work for the film.

Apart from this small negative, which is strictly a personal opinion I would strongly recommend this film, however I would watch the movie before reading the book if that is something you wish to do. As the reader would surely be disappointed in the simplistic tale after the large expansive world created by Helprin. If your a fan of the wondrous and fantastical and you love a good romance then this is a film for you. I hope you enjoy.

Let me know what you thought of the film in the comments below.