This is really Michael Mann's "The Keep", not F. Paul Wilson's. It is an interpretation of Wilson's novel, certainly not a slavish adaptation. Mann dispenses with much of Wilson's exposition, and has drastically rewritten scenes in order for them to exist solely as eye and ear candy. He is aided and abetted by Tangerine Dream, who deliver a hypnotic and surreal score.
The movie does not hold together narratively or dramatically, and the love story is forced and awful. Alex Thomson's cinematography, however, is mind-blowing -- worth singling out are the boat sequence, the scene in which the Molasar (the imprisoned evil) visits Dr. Cuza (Ian McKellen), and Scott Glenn's motorcycle ride through the forest. Mann is expert at creating powerful, transcendent visuals, and sometimes he even gets the drama right, too ("Heat", for example), but in "The Keep", he is overwhelmed by the material.
The film flopped badly when released, not surprisingly, but it is well worth seeing for its audacious set pieces and European visual style. A solid rewrite may have ironed out the confusion and strengthened the strained, awkward relationships between the characters.
Recommended with reservations.
The movie does not hold together narratively or dramatically, and the love story is forced and awful. Alex Thomson's cinematography, however, is mind-blowing -- worth singling out are the boat sequence, the scene in which the Molasar (the imprisoned evil) visits Dr. Cuza (Ian McKellen), and Scott Glenn's motorcycle ride through the forest. Mann is expert at creating powerful, transcendent visuals, and sometimes he even gets the drama right, too ("Heat", for example), but in "The Keep", he is overwhelmed by the material.
The film flopped badly when released, not surprisingly, but it is well worth seeing for its audacious set pieces and European visual style. A solid rewrite may have ironed out the confusion and strengthened the strained, awkward relationships between the characters.
Recommended with reservations.