“Colonia” Reviewed and Bid on at TIFF

Sep 14, 2015

Posted by: Catherine

Movies, News, Watson

Emma Watson’s new film, Colonia, made it’s premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival this weekend. The Hollywood Reporter noted that many American buyers were lining up to buy the film, though the film has already attracted global buyers who are in the final bid for the film.

Beta Cinema, which is handling world sales, is in final negotiations on an international deal that will see a single studio take multiple territories for Colonia, giving the title a major global push.

Beta also has closed separate deals for the picture in multiple international territories, including with Good Films in Italy, NEW in South Korea and Shooting Stars for the Middle East.

The Hollywood Reporter also wrote an article, reviewing Colonia after it premiered. The reviews were not glowing or full of praise. The opening paragraph was quite negative, calling the movie a “poor attempt,” and the rest of the review does not gain any positivity beyond that.

Starring Emma Watson and Daniel Bruhl as two English-speaking German lovers who find themselves trapped in English-speaking Chile just as Augusto Pinochet launches his coup in 1974, the film offers neither actor the kind of material they merit — and gives Bruhl one of his more embarrassing tasks when his character is forced to play a “retard” in order to trick his Chilean captors, resulting in a performance that comes awfully close to the Simple Jack parody from Ben Stiller’s Tropic Thunder.

Some of this could have been tolerable if the script — by Gallenberger and Torsten Wenzel —weren’t so steeped in genre clichés from start to finish, beginning with an opening scene that has Lufthansa stewardess, Lena (Watson), and her graphic designer lover, Daniel (Bruhl), meeting by pure chance at a street rally in support of Salvador Allende.

Both Watson and Bruhl do what they can with what’s on offer, though their performances are hampered by all the flat dialogue, as well as by the film’s refusal to truly contextualize anything outside a few explanations in the opening and closing title cards. When one young nun is asked about Colonia, she answers that “there is nothing to understand.” Really? Perhaps it’s a language problem after all, though if anything should actually be said in Spanish here, it would probably be: ay, caramba!

If you wish to read this crushing review in full, you can find it on The Hollywood Reporter, here. The trailer for Colonia was also released today. It may be seen below.





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