← Back to Reviews
in
Set Fire to the Stars, 2014
In 1950, poet and professor John Brinnan (Elijah Wood) invites Dylan Tomas (Celyn Jones) to New York to do a poetry reading tour across the country. But Thomas's hard partying ways make him difficult for Brinnan to control, and as Brinnan watches the different reactions to Thomas, he begins to question his own life as a man and as an artist.
This is one of those frustrating films where the stronger elements seem to be at war with the weaker elements, ultimately ending up as something that doesn't make nearly the impression as a whole that it might have.
One of those strengths is the performances from Wood and Jones. Both men feel lived in, though I must confess that as someone who only knows Thomas from his works and doesn't really know Brinnan at all, I can't speak to how much I feel they nailed the vibe of their biographical subjects. Wood always does a good job at playing mildly anxious (yet determined) characters, and he has good chemistry with Jones as one man who needs to let himself feel more and another man who feels a little too much.
What lets them down, however, is the writing and the overall pace of the film. There's a meandering to the film that just doesn't work well, and the question "where is this all going?" kept popping up for me, and not in a good way.
Now that said, there are a handful of small moments that really sing, and there is one really stellar sequence where Brinnan and Thomas spend an evening with Shirley Jackson (played by the outstandingly weird Shirley Henderson) and her husband. Jackson tells a scary story of her own writing, which then leads Brinnan to reveal his own horrible true story of an incident of animal cruelty he participated in as a teenager.
Overall, though, it's a bit mushy and lacking in impact. The black and white photography is very pretty and the leads are engaging, but it isn't really enough to recommend (aside from the sequence with Shirley Jackson).
Set Fire to the Stars, 2014
In 1950, poet and professor John Brinnan (Elijah Wood) invites Dylan Tomas (Celyn Jones) to New York to do a poetry reading tour across the country. But Thomas's hard partying ways make him difficult for Brinnan to control, and as Brinnan watches the different reactions to Thomas, he begins to question his own life as a man and as an artist.
This is one of those frustrating films where the stronger elements seem to be at war with the weaker elements, ultimately ending up as something that doesn't make nearly the impression as a whole that it might have.
One of those strengths is the performances from Wood and Jones. Both men feel lived in, though I must confess that as someone who only knows Thomas from his works and doesn't really know Brinnan at all, I can't speak to how much I feel they nailed the vibe of their biographical subjects. Wood always does a good job at playing mildly anxious (yet determined) characters, and he has good chemistry with Jones as one man who needs to let himself feel more and another man who feels a little too much.
What lets them down, however, is the writing and the overall pace of the film. There's a meandering to the film that just doesn't work well, and the question "where is this all going?" kept popping up for me, and not in a good way.
Now that said, there are a handful of small moments that really sing, and there is one really stellar sequence where Brinnan and Thomas spend an evening with Shirley Jackson (played by the outstandingly weird Shirley Henderson) and her husband. Jackson tells a scary story of her own writing, which then leads Brinnan to reveal his own horrible true story of an incident of animal cruelty he participated in as a teenager.
Overall, though, it's a bit mushy and lacking in impact. The black and white photography is very pretty and the leads are engaging, but it isn't really enough to recommend (aside from the sequence with Shirley Jackson).