Reviews (4)

excellent portrait of a time and place
The year is 1908, the place is a small island in the Aegean sea. Ben Kingsley shines in "Pascali's Island", a subtle tale of fear and betrayal in uncertain, changing times. The violent ending, although hinted at throughout the film, will jar you since the tone till then has been guardedly genteel.

A fine performance is turned in by Helen Mirren, playing the Austrian painter Lydia, a woman in her 30s whom Pascali has loved from a distance for years. He is tormented by her love affair with an English archeologist as events spin toward an inevitable disastrous conclusion.

The clear, bright Aegean ocean reflecting the brilliant blue sky above makes a gorgeous scenic backdrop for the film. The ocean is seen from many interesting camera angles through windows and doorways of buildings, down from stone steps, and straight on as a large sailboat glides across it. The elemental sunshine and the open, calm sea serve as a counterpoint to the scheming people and their sinister secrets.

Highly recommended!

Riveting!
I just chanced to see this film recently at a friend's house and what a riveting film it is indeed!
The story takes place on a Turkish-controlled sun-kissed Greek island during the declining days of the Ottoman Empire. Ben Kingsley's character is a conniving but rather melancholy yet sympathetic figure, a minor functionary whose job it is to be eyes and ears for the Sultan. He feels a failure and unappreciated by his superiors even though his pay packet from Constantinople never fails to arrive.
Charles Dance arrives as a putative English archaeologist searching for land to lease so that he might excavate for antiquities of the Greek classical period. Helen Mirren stars as a wealthy American free spirit whose reason for living on the island is suspected by the local pasha but doesn't become clear until the end.
Against the backdrop of gorgeous scenery, simmering Greek-Turkish ethnic tension, and the sideshow of the developing romance between Dance and Mirren, an avoidable tragedy unfolds.
Conniving, greed, duplicity, the interference of the German charge d'affaires, and multiple misunderstandings leave the viewer wondering how its all going to turn out for the hapless Pascali (Kingsley).
I won't give away the game, you have to see it for yourself. The well thought out story line and the command performances of the three main characters demand that you do.

I loved this movie!
I love movies where the location is like another character (characters even) within the story.

This is a wonderful insight into another time and another place. With the preludes of war setting a benignly precarious backdrop intriguing characters deploy their motives in an enchanting dance of ulteriors and schemes.

The psychologies at work in this story are delightful to behold, the viewer is captivated and enthralled from the beginning!

This is the story of a man whose "god" forgot him.
In a finely-crafted and beautifully filmed story, three people meet who are engaged in deceptions of differents sorts. Each one is acting in secret, yet all three find themselves thrust into the very center of their deceptions by ironic twists. Each fences with the other romantically, yet the most cynical actually fall in love. Excellent performances by Kingsley, Charles Dance and Helen Mirren, three of England's most talented and versatile actors. Exotic scenery sets the stage for a variety of passions, schemes and deceits. Mirren and Dance are spectacular in the love scenes especially, but Ben Kingsley steals the movie, his dark eyes mirroring his dwindling hope in his sultan's dying world and his hopeless love for an untouchable, unreachable foreigner. ... Read more

Reviews (5)

Intense , suspenseful & a surprise ending..Very good movie
What else could one want??? It's worth having in your collection, it's unfortunate it's not on DVD... also buy the book.

Only if you MUST see every Ira Levin film...
Read Ira Levin's book: five stars. Gripping, creepy, memorable. He puts you inside the mind of a sociopath. He writes women in grave danger (as in his later books also) and it will chill you. You turn the pages, helpless against the inevitable suspense.

Watch the 1956 movie that has Robert Wagner, Joanne Woodward, Virginia Leith, and Jeffery Hunter: four stars, an above-average thriller. It follows the book pretty well, and Wagner is menacing. The director does a masterful job with the unspoken elements of character and plot. Good musical score and sets, too.

This one with Matt Dillon and Sean Young? It is "dumbed-down" modern Hollywood tripe, below average. The acting and directing aren't very convincing, either. But mainly this is bad for the same reason the film version of "Sliver" is bad: Levin's brilliant writing is diluted into nonsense. Skip this unless you're a completist.

"A Kiss Before Dying" was already done well in 1956. So, why did they bother with this turkey remake? They could have made a fine film out of another Levin classic thriller, "This Perfect Day," instead!

Potential Suspense Dissipated by Weak Female Lead
The source material of this adaptation is rich enough to provides reels and reels worth of suspense: Ira Levin's novel of the same title which was first turned into a film in 1956 or so. The story of a charming but homicidal social climber preying on the daughters of a business tycoon is compact and sleek in its delivery of thrills and chills, much like Levin's other novel about imperiled women: SLIVER. However, just like the botched adaptation of that other novel, the second adaptation of A KISS BEFORE DYING also leaves a lot to be desired. While the weak film that SLIVER became can be blamed on faulty adaptation of the novel and not the performance of its lead actress (Contrary to a few but unfortunately potent reviews of the film, Sharon Stone delivers a performace that is appropriately low-key and vastly underrated), the equally ineffective film that A KISS BEFORE DYING becomes is primarilty the result of a lifeless performance by its female lead: Sean Young.

Sean Young is one of the most beautiful women in films today, and she has been quite memorable and effective in other films (BLADE RUNNER, THE BOOST, and most notably, NO WAY OUT). However, she is simply ineffective as the heroine of A KISS BEFORE DYING; the role calls for her to be driven and obsessed about finding out who murdered her twin sister. Unfortunately, the only "thing" she projects convincingly is disinterest. The success of this film turns on the degree of sympathy and concern we feel for her character. After all, her sister's murderer is really her husband (Matt Dillon, who is indeed effective), and the closer she gets to this revelation, the more danger she's in. But if she can't be bothered to appear interested, why should we? Our emotions are so disengaged that if a giant anvil were to drop out of the sky and land on Sean Young's character, we would simply sit there stone-faced, just like her.

A good suspence story.
I don't really see, what some people have against this movie. So what, that they deviated a bit from Ira Levin. It makes the movie nicely compact. Longer and the suspence would go away. Now it's just the right length. Kiss before Dying has a good plot with a nice build-up of the tension and it is well played by the cast. Particularly Matt Dillon as the muderer. I cann't remember a movie where I was more relieved when the villain finally got his come-upance.

A great thriller.
This movie is a great thriller, in the style of Fatal Atracttion and Single, White, Female. But, it could be a little more like Ira Levin's novel. But Sean Young's death ( In the beggining ) is one of the bests in the genre. ... Read more

Reviews (5)

Intense , suspenseful & a surprise ending..Very good movie
What else could one want??? It's worth having in your collection, it's unfortunate it's not on DVD... also buy the book.

Only if you MUST see every Ira Levin film...
Read Ira Levin's book: five stars. Gripping, creepy, memorable. He puts you inside the mind of a sociopath. He writes women in grave danger (as in his later books also) and it will chill you. You turn the pages, helpless against the inevitable suspense.

Watch the 1956 movie that has Robert Wagner, Joanne Woodward, Virginia Leith, and Jeffery Hunter: four stars, an above-average thriller. It follows the book pretty well, and Wagner is menacing. The director does a masterful job with the unspoken elements of character and plot. Good musical score and sets, too.

This one with Matt Dillon and Sean Young? It is "dumbed-down" modern Hollywood tripe, below average. The acting and directing aren't very convincing, either. But mainly this is bad for the same reason the film version of "Sliver" is bad: Levin's brilliant writing is diluted into nonsense. Skip this unless you're a completist.

"A Kiss Before Dying" was already done well in 1956. So, why did they bother with this turkey remake? They could have made a fine film out of another Levin classic thriller, "This Perfect Day," instead!

Potential Suspense Dissipated by Weak Female Lead
The source material of this adaptation is rich enough to provides reels and reels worth of suspense: Ira Levin's novel of the same title which was first turned into a film in 1956 or so. The story of a charming but homicidal social climber preying on the daughters of a business tycoon is compact and sleek in its delivery of thrills and chills, much like Levin's other novel about imperiled women: SLIVER. However, just like the botched adaptation of that other novel, the second adaptation of A KISS BEFORE DYING also leaves a lot to be desired. While the weak film that SLIVER became can be blamed on faulty adaptation of the novel and not the performance of its lead actress (Contrary to a few but unfortunately potent reviews of the film, Sharon Stone delivers a performace that is appropriately low-key and vastly underrated), the equally ineffective film that A KISS BEFORE DYING becomes is primarilty the result of a lifeless performance by its female lead: Sean Young.

Sean Young is one of the most beautiful women in films today, and she has been quite memorable and effective in other films (BLADE RUNNER, THE BOOST, and most notably, NO WAY OUT). However, she is simply ineffective as the heroine of A KISS BEFORE DYING; the role calls for her to be driven and obsessed about finding out who murdered her twin sister. Unfortunately, the only "thing" she projects convincingly is disinterest. The success of this film turns on the degree of sympathy and concern we feel for her character. After all, her sister's murderer is really her husband (Matt Dillon, who is indeed effective), and the closer she gets to this revelation, the more danger she's in. But if she can't be bothered to appear interested, why should we? Our emotions are so disengaged that if a giant anvil were to drop out of the sky and land on Sean Young's character, we would simply sit there stone-faced, just like her.

A good suspence story.
I don't really see, what some people have against this movie. So what, that they deviated a bit from Ira Levin. It makes the movie nicely compact. Longer and the suspence would go away. Now it's just the right length. Kiss before Dying has a good plot with a nice build-up of the tension and it is well played by the cast. Particularly Matt Dillon as the muderer. I cann't remember a movie where I was more relieved when the villain finally got his come-upance.

A great thriller.
This movie is a great thriller, in the style of Fatal Atracttion and Single, White, Female. But, it could be a little more like Ira Levin's novel. But Sean Young's death ( In the beggining ) is one of the bests in the genre. ... Read more

Reviews (35)

A titanic sink for Barings Bank!
Did British films ever get so good? Only Bond has made the British film industry more appealing than this film. Rogue Trader is a wonderful blend of true life chaos, ambition and status, with a romantic overture. It would be naive and foolish to say that the film is without fault, however they do not blemish the thrills of the story. This interpretation of the tale leaves the audience feeling sorry for Nick Leeson. The thought of sitting through a film about the does and don'ts of the stock market doesn't really appeal to me. I'm more into the thrills and spills of Star Wars. But I loved Rogue Trader and was deeply moved by the films emotional ending. This just goes to show that this a film that appeals to a wide variety of cinemagoers. Some might say that knowing how the story turns out spoils the climatic end, but it never mattered in Titanic. So, in my opinion, go, spread the word, Rogue Trader is brilliant as are the cast, especially the superb Ewan McGregor!

The Stock Market? Ho-humm......
I have to admit, when I popped this movie in the DVD player, I wasn't all that enthusiastic about seeing it. But if anyone can make the stock market and investing interesting, it ought to be Ewan McGregor, right? Wrong! Even an energetic actor like McGregor had trouble making a stock portfolio sound fascinating. Sadly, the boredom of watching his character sit at a desk and fret could have been overcome if there had been a real attempt at doing a character study of Nick Leeson and what really made him tick. There had to be more going on beneath the surface of this man than just an attempt to cover for one of his employee's mistakes. But you never really get a glimpse of who he is. On the level of simply getting a buzz from watching my favorite actor, McGregor, it was nice. But I just kept thinking--oh, if only the script had given you something to work with! Too bad.

How one man broke Bearings Bank
This film tells the true story of Nick Leeson, the floor trader on Simex exchange,Singapore, who singly handedly broke Barings Bank, in the mid '90's. Of how one mans ambition was overcome by pressures, and in turn, reckless gambling.

An incredible aspect of this case was how Leeson covered up for so long, and fooled so many, who it seemed, were so wrapped up in their own company rhetoric they simply wanted to believe in Leeson. The regional manager in Singapore had never even heard of the name of the brokerage house Leeson used to "invent" a trade to cover the missing and ever increasing deficit being incured in the "88888" account, a supposed customer account, but in reality, an back office error account.

The pace of the story is very well done here. My only gripe is, for a film with excellent supporting cast, why did they take so little care over the choice of the leading players? Ewan McGreggor is convincing as Leeson only when the sickly scenes with his wife are not on screen, the hoplessly miscast Lisa.

Some may find the numerous and fast financial terms not easy to follow. But a fascinating story, with great use of background music.

bogus
one of the worst movies ever this stuff must have been made up and total lack of common sense makes this movie an amatureish comedy

Go Gregor Go!!!
Ewan McGregor proves in this movie as Nick, he is a good actor...nicely done with some memorable moments....dont let this happen to you..if you work in the stock market....and note that an actor named Alexis Denisof plays in this movie...he goes on to play Wesley Wyndham Price in Buffy The Vampire Slayer and Angel..for all you fans who didnt know he was in this movie..check it out..he has a nice role. ... Read more

Reviews (4)

excellent portrait of a time and place
The year is 1908, the place is a small island in the Aegean sea. Ben Kingsley shines in "Pascali's Island", a subtle tale of fear and betrayal in uncertain, changing times. The violent ending, although hinted at throughout the film, will jar you since the tone till then has been guardedly genteel.

A fine performance is turned in by Helen Mirren, playing the Austrian painter Lydia, a woman in her 30s whom Pascali has loved from a distance for years. He is tormented by her love affair with an English archeologist as events spin toward an inevitable disastrous conclusion.

The clear, bright Aegean ocean reflecting the brilliant blue sky above makes a gorgeous scenic backdrop for the film. The ocean is seen from many interesting camera angles through windows and doorways of buildings, down from stone steps, and straight on as a large sailboat glides across it. The elemental sunshine and the open, calm sea serve as a counterpoint to the scheming people and their sinister secrets.

Highly recommended!

Riveting!
I just chanced to see this film recently at a friend's house and what a riveting film it is indeed!
The story takes place on a Turkish-controlled sun-kissed Greek island during the declining days of the Ottoman Empire. Ben Kingsley's character is a conniving but rather melancholy yet sympathetic figure, a minor functionary whose job it is to be eyes and ears for the Sultan. He feels a failure and unappreciated by his superiors even though his pay packet from Constantinople never fails to arrive.
Charles Dance arrives as a putative English archaeologist searching for land to lease so that he might excavate for antiquities of the Greek classical period. Helen Mirren stars as a wealthy American free spirit whose reason for living on the island is suspected by the local pasha but doesn't become clear until the end.
Against the backdrop of gorgeous scenery, simmering Greek-Turkish ethnic tension, and the sideshow of the developing romance between Dance and Mirren, an avoidable tragedy unfolds.
Conniving, greed, duplicity, the interference of the German charge d'affaires, and multiple misunderstandings leave the viewer wondering how its all going to turn out for the hapless Pascali (Kingsley).
I won't give away the game, you have to see it for yourself. The well thought out story line and the command performances of the three main characters demand that you do.

I loved this movie!
I love movies where the location is like another character (characters even) within the story.

This is a wonderful insight into another time and another place. With the preludes of war setting a benignly precarious backdrop intriguing characters deploy their motives in an enchanting dance of ulteriors and schemes.

The psychologies at work in this story are delightful to behold, the viewer is captivated and enthralled from the beginning!

This is the story of a man whose "god" forgot him.
In a finely-crafted and beautifully filmed story, three people meet who are engaged in deceptions of differents sorts. Each one is acting in secret, yet all three find themselves thrust into the very center of their deceptions by ironic twists. Each fences with the other romantically, yet the most cynical actually fall in love. Excellent performances by Kingsley, Charles Dance and Helen Mirren, three of England's most talented and versatile actors. Exotic scenery sets the stage for a variety of passions, schemes and deceits. Mirren and Dance are spectacular in the love scenes especially, but Ben Kingsley steals the movie, his dark eyes mirroring his dwindling hope in his sultan's dying world and his hopeless love for an untouchable, unreachable foreigner. ... Read more