<Review by: Sailesh Ghelani>

Directed by Akiva Goldsman. Starring Colin Farrell, Jessica Brown-Findlay, Russell Crowe, William Hurt, Jennifer Connelly, Eva Marie Saint, Will Smith

What a weird movie!

WTF

It starts off as a regular enough film. And then all of a sudden, there’s a white flying horse. And Russell Crowe looks like a regular mafia boss, but then he turns into a demon that likes playing with gemstones. And there’s Will Smith as Lucifer in a scene that looks like something out of a stage play. None of this is explained in any way, fantastical or otherwise.

Perhaps because Winter’s Tale is based on a book (by Mark Helprin) that’s 700 pages long and the movie has to encapsulate all that. But the movie isn’t exactly like the book, which has a lot of the books’ fans a bit upset.

A Tale of…

So Peter Lake played by the yummy Colin Farrell is a thief who used to work for Pearly Soames played by Crowe. But then he decides to leave. But nobody leaves the devil. Especially since Peter, apparently is going to be someone else’s ‘miracle’ and will save them from death and the dark side can’t have that.

Peter is lead to a wealthy but very sick young girl called Beverly Penn, played by the lovely girl from Downton Abbey Jessica Brown-Findlay. They fall in love and he must evade Pearly and save his girly.

Minority Verdict

The acting may be over the top at times, especially by Russell Crowe and Will Smith and at points you wonder where this is all going. None of the story is really explained; you just have to believe that all this takes place in an alternate magical world where flying horses and winter miracles are possible.

The love story is pretty as are the visuals and cinematography. If you sidestep the logical part of your brain and just watch then you might enjoy this very odd but charming film about how love can save us all and good triumphs evil.