tomdickson
whilst this movie is not to difficult to sit through for good cinematography and pleasing locations and some useful plot movements ultimately the character resolution/ development which makes a story of this type work is missing. at sff before screening the director assured us the story was complex. cant say id agree it is is fairly linear with most things in the beginning middle end type of script.do i care about these people?not much. do they reveal new insights for me ?no. tiny is very well directed acted and shot, the male lead sadly is not. as the script doesn't help his case i cant really assess him. if anything the movie reinforces a stereotype of south Africa which again doesn't add much to our existing knowledge or perception.
Raven-1969
The lives of a trio of damaged characters from a small town intersect in the pouring rain, the enthralling pulse of a night club, ocean swells, resplendent beaches and ancient yellow-wood forests. Love blooms even as a woman cries alone and beneath the street lights in the middle of the night, terrible crimes are committed and coffins are lowered into the ground. Such scenes of pain and joy flicker like flames in the hearts of each character as they struggle to find answers to crucial questions like; who and why?! Some questions do not have answers and reveal truths that cut to the bone. This film is deftly crafted and finely done. It is firing on all cylinders. All in the filmmaker's bag of tricks – cinematography of beautiful and exotic landscapes as well as people, distant and diverse voices that need to be heard, creative camera angles that add to the mystery and suspense of the story and do not detract from it, fantastic pacing wherein scenes seamlessly blend into each other, music that makes you want to track down the singers and melt into their caravan, balanced, truthful and real portrayals of characters and themes, no pulled punches, acting that makes it seem you stumbled into the lives of these characters as you wandered around South Africa, intriguing themes and characters, organization and directing that keep your eyes glued to the screen and oblivious to all distractions be they what they may, a well-told story from beginning to end, and other support – is accomplished like fine art and without any of its pretensions. The only thing wanting here is sophistication and fame that may do as much to cheapen the film as help it. Seen at the 2016 Miami International Film Festival.
euroGary
I don't know if officials in the South African Department of Trade and Industry vetted the script of 'The Endless River' before agreeing to part-finance it; if they did, they can't be terribly concerned about their country's reputation, as the film opens with a woman being gang-raped and (together with her two young sons) shot dead by masked intruders in her own home. And unless my eyes aren't as sharp as I thought, when police arrest some men for the crime, they've actually got it wrong - they've arrested black men, and the body parts revealed during the rape are white!The woman is the wife of Gilles, a French ex-pat and recent arrival to small-town South Africa. Fortunately for this bereaved husband and father, he's got South Africa's most unbelievably irresponsible police detective on his side, for when the latter decides, on scant if any evidence, that a newly-released jailbird must be responsible for the crime, he provides Gilles with a photograph of the suspect. Soon enough, the suspect turns up dead. Gilles offers his condolences to the dead man's widow, Tiny, whom he knows from her job in a café he frequents. Soon the pair, united in grief, take off together on a road trip - but what will happen when Tiny discovers that Gilles knew her husband was a suspect in his family's murders?As Gilles, Nicolas Duvauchelle sounds impossibly sexy when speaking English - as, of course, do all French people. But there are times - especially during particularly emotional scenes - when he is too obviously Acting with a capital A. But Crystal-Donna Roberts is very believable as Tiny, nicely portraying the creeping disappointment when her jailbird husband seems to be reverting to his old ways, the grief when he is killed, and the joy of potential new love with Gilles (and every man who watches the film will in turn fall in love with her).Despite the obvious plot holes and some dangling plot threads, the film is interesting and it's one I'll probably watch again.
PoppyTransfusion
Set in the Eastern Cape of South Africa and taking in sights along its famous 'Garden route' is this tale of murder and grief. Gilles is a French émigré whose family are brutally murdered. Tiny has been reunited with her husband Percy on his release from prison after four years. He was a member of a gang but is determined to start afresh under pressure from Tiny and her mother. Gilles's family's murders are associated to a local gang and Percy is suspected of involvement. When Percy becomes a victim of what appears to be another gang murder, Gilles finds solace with his grieving wife. They embark on a journey together but the beauty of their trip conceals something dark.The film is photographed well and the acting is good; Nicolas 'Nico' Duvauchelle delivers as always and so do the supporting cast. Unfortunately the film's soundtrack is too dramatic as are some of the expressions of grief. Raw, physical sorrow does not sit well with the slow and despairing pace that is the film's main tempo. The characterisations are quite good but the script is banal. The ambiguous ending comes across as ambivalent suggesting there was no idea how to close the tale.All in all a mixed bag but the film was good enough to hold my attention.
AD
