Monday, November 18, 2019

We Have Always Lived in the Castle (2018)



Movie Name/Year: We Have Always Lived in the Castle (2018)
Genre: Drama, Mystery, Thriller
Length: 90 minutes
Rating: NR
Production/Distribution: Mighty Engine, Furthur Films, Albyn Media, Front Row Filmed Entertainment, Brainstorm Media, Kinostar Filmverleih
Director: Stacie Passon
Writer: Mark Kruger, Shirley Jackson
Actors: Taissa Farmiga, Alexandra Daddario, Crispin Glover, Sebastian Stan, Paula Malcomson, Peter Coonan, Ian Toner, Joanne Crawford, Anna Nugent, Peter O’Meara, Luan James Geary, Cormac Melia, Liz O’Sullivan, Bosco Hogan, Stephen Hogan, Una Carroll, Patrick Joseph Byrnes, John Andrew O’Rourke

Blurb from IMDb: Merricat, Constance and their Uncle Julian live in isolation after experiencing a family tragedy six years earlier. When cousin Charles arrives to steal the family fortune, he also threatens a dark secret they've been hiding.


Selina’s Point of View:
Just from watching this film I can see how it would work MUCH better as a book.

I tend to give book adaptations the benefit of the doubt. Not everyone enjoys reading, or has the imagination necessary for it, so I understand why someone would want to take a great story and expose more people to it. In this case, I’m more inclined to lean toward the ‘don’t adapt this’ method of thinking.


The acting was phenomenal. Taissa Farmiga (American Horror Story, The Nun, Rules Don’t Apply), Alexandra Daddario (We Summon the Darkness, When We First Met, Baywatch), Crispin Glover (American Gods, The Con is On, Influence) and Sebastian Stan (Logan Lucky, The Martian, Captain America: Civil War) were all perfectly wonderful in their parts. It’s not their fault I feel the way I do. Equally, the plot is an incredible look at mob mentality. Shirley Jackson’s (The Haunting of Hill House, The Lottery, American Playhouse) brain-child is not at fault either.

The problem is that, even though the story was fine, the pacing was outstandingly bad. I felt every single minute of that hour and a half. Halfway through the movie I felt like I had been watching it for longer than I’d been awake.

I think this is one of those cases where I have to advise people to pick up the book and skip the film.


Rotten Tomatoes Critic Score – 89%
Rotten Tomatoes Audience Score – 54%
Metascore – 63/100
Metacritic User Score – 5.9/10
IMDB Score – 5.6/10
CinemaScore – None

Trust the Dice: Selina’s Rating2.5/5

Trust-the-Dice’s Parental Advisory Rating: PG-13

Movie Trailer:

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