March 2022
After he dumped a body into a basement and burned a house down, Stanton Carlisle (Bradley Cooper) joined a traveling carnival which featured "The Geek" (a wild man who ate a live chicken) and other people with special "talents". He learned the "mind-reading" trade from the husband and wife team of Pete (David Straithairn) and Zeena (Toni Collette). Later he fell in love with the pretty "electricity" girl Molly (Rooney Mara).
Stan and Molly left the circus to go to the big city. They develop a more sophisticated version of the mind-reading act and performed it swanky hotels for wealthy audiences. In one of his shows, Stan met Dr. Lilith Ritter (Cate Blanchett) who was a therapist for several millionaires who were carrying various forms of guilt. The two embark on a more elaborate and sinister con trade to fleece these vulnerable victims of their fortune.
The cast was very impressive, with 8 Oscar winners and nominees (Cooper, Blanchett, Straithairn, Collete, Mara, Mary Steenburgen, Richard Jenkins and Willem Dafoe) in the roster. Bradley Cooper further proves his versatility as an actor here. His arrogant character Stanton Carlisle went through such a roller-coaster of a story arc, right up to that harrowing ending, and Cooper did not miss a step in his characterization.
Visionary director Guillermo del Toro himself adapted the screenplay from a novel by William Lindsay Gresham. This had already been adapted into a film version in 1947 directed by Edmund Goulding starring Tyrone Power. That would explain the rather old-fashioned melodramatic noir twist of the story, told in a slow pace and 2-1/2 hour run time. That said, for those who have not seen the original, that ending was still a very powerful statement.
Aside from the excellent acting ensemble, it was the technical aspects of its cinematography that really made this stand out among the other films of the year. The two disparate parts of Stan's life made this film a big challenge in production design, costumes and make-up, and these artists definitely delivered to transport us back in time both in the rough tumble at the carnival and the classy elegance of high society. 7/10.
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