that ish cray

As an adaptation of Tess of the d'Urbervilles set in a completely different context, I think Trishna almost succeeded. It tried to stay on the side of realism as much as possible, from the documentary style camerawork and sound editing to the naturalistic dialogue and performances. It would've been a great film if it didn't feel like it dragged. It's only an hour and 45 minutes, but for some reason it feels like it takes forever to make its point. It was great to see a film set in India with minimal singing and dancing, but it felt like it was trying too hard to feel important. There is also a tonal shift towards the end that is jarring and difficult to predict. However, I was left cold, rather than shocked or shaken. I haven't read the book in years, but I definitely don't remember it ending that way.

Kind of great as long as it doesn't pay attention to the plot, even though the plot is freakin' Tess of the D'Urbervilles. (Or a seriously maimed version of it, that is: two of the three main characters have been combined, for reasons that only make sense in some perverse intellectual way.) Winterbottom's whiplashy filmmaking is great at covering up conceptual holes, namely the pesky problem of Freida Pinto being the Webster's picture for the term "pretty vacant." But things do eventually slow down, and the final stretch has the thinness that too maim so many of Winterbottom's works.

My NPR review here.

that ish cray

Ό,τι αρχίζει ωραίο τελείωνει με πόνο, της Trishna η καρδιά το ξέρει μόνο.
(Μελο)δραματάρα βαριά από το θεούλη Winterbottom που είναι απ' τους λίγους που ξεβολεύονται και δεν επαναλαμβάνονται.

Beautifully shot, minus Frieda Pinto's green face

As an adaptation of Tess of the d'Urbervilles set in a completely different context, I think Trishna almost succeeded. It tried to stay on the side of realism as much as possible, from the documentary style camerawork and sound editing to the naturalistic dialogue and performances. It would've been a great film if it didn't feel like it dragged. It's only an hour and 45 minutes, but for some reason it feels like it takes forever to make its point. It was great to see a film set in India with minimal singing and dancing, but it felt like it was trying too hard to feel important. There is also a tonal shift towards the end that is jarring and difficult to predict. However, I was left cold, rather than shocked or shaken. I haven't read the book in years, but I definitely don't remember it ending that way.

This is a wonderfully tragic film that had a very surprising ending that was unexpected. Michael has made some wonderful films over the years and this is one of them and was even more surprised that it didn't have such a good ranking on imdb. A very tragic tale that is one for the books in how good it is.

Review from my VOD column "This Week on Demand".

Thomas Hardy’s Tess of the d’Urbervilles finds a new lease of life in Trishna, Michael Winterbottom’s ambitious, alluring modernisation. The transplantation of Hardy’s novel to an Indian context is a strange move, but a rewarding one, that country’s duality—caught between progress and tradition—providing a fine backdrop against which to set a relationship fraught by gender and class divides. Brimming with the eminent optimism and hopefulness of youth, Freida Pinto brings a contained vibrancy to the titular character, a trait that proves invaluable to the draining effect of her character arc. Better yet is Riz Ahmed, whose ability to move from endearing playboy to hideous chauvinist underlines his excellence as an actor. Winterbottom doesn’t quite manage to sell the characters’ evolutions fully, their paths seeming overly contrived and contrary, yet such are the performances that the affecting emotion overshadows what few issues its expression encounters.