Wicker Park

Slow pace. Just as I was ready to stop watching something happened to hold my interest. The male lead surely lost his job since he never went to China and blew off an important meeting. Many of us have known an Alex and is in real life they lose. The acting music and scenery were above average.

This is a great movie. Great acting and plot. It's well worth the watch. Loved the ending too!

Great story and great acting, and loved that it was in Wicker Park, by my home!

I'll try not to make this sound like a love letter to Rose Byrne, but I apologize in advance if it comes across as such. I hope people will agree with me when I say that her performance alone makes this movie a must see.Rose is not the only reason this movie is great. It is a heart-wrenching, tragic love story/mystery brought to life with stunning visual style. Wicker Park is a moving painting augmented by a poetic story. It is a tale of a man, Matthew (played by Josh Hartnett) desperately searching for a lost love, Lisa (Diane Kruger). The film is told in a non-linear fashion and key plot points are revealed at precisely the right time to keep the viewer guessing. This is kind of a spoiler; but the reason his love is lost is because of the manipulative scheming of Alex (Rose Byrne's character). She falls hopelessly in love with Matthew from afar before he even knows who she is. Without too much trouble she is able to devise a plan which allows her to break up the lovers and at the same time get close to Matthew. That's the details of this particular film, but what it boils down to is a classic theme: person A loves person B while person C loves person A. Unfortunately person A essentially doesn't know that person C exists. It's a basic story that almost everyone can relate to in some form or another.Okay back to the main subject of my review. Yes, Josh Hartnett is well cast and Diane Kruger is adequate in her role, but the real star of the show is Rose Byrne. Her character is not fully revealed until 45 minutes into the film, but from that moment on, you will forever be under her spell. Rose is perfectly cast. No one can say as much with just their eyes and facial expressions as Rose Byrne can. Love, hurt, anger, fear, sadness, remorse, embarrassment, and elation are all easily displayed without so much as a word. And what a beautiful face it is, her eyes alone make me weak. Thankfully the filmmakers were aware of this and took full advantage; frequently shooting her in close-up.Rose's character Alex can easily be seen as the villain because she does everything in her power to keep Matthew and Lisa apart. Just like in real life, however, everything isn't black and white. "Love makes you do crazy things," as Rose's character declares. It depends on who you personally identify with. Different viewers will sympathize with different characters, and that is a credit to the dramatic story and to the filmmakers.As mentioned earlier, Wicker Park is beautifully photographed and edited (split screen is used frequently to great effect) and the music/score enhances every scene perfectly. Ideally I would give this movie 4.5 stars if I could (I reserve the five stars for a select few) and I can't think of many better ways to spend two hours.

I really take to more seriously type stalking movies and hesitated to watch this because I read reviews on IMDB that this also had a humorous side and was super romantic. I found these subjects actually added to the flavor of the movie making it slightly different an special than the norm. This movie deserved a five except for the beautiful ending which went on overlong slightly. I did love the ending but I did think, "Come on, get it over with." The music was so good though I played it out until the end. (The music used in this was one of the best soundtracks used for a movie I have ever heard and I do not at all buy music scores but I may do it here.) As others stated, you do have to pay attention really well to the movie to track what is happening. I was confused at first but caught on to the back and forth of the past vs. present. It starts in the present and flashes back. Such a beautiful movie. I may not have got into the characters as deep as I might do with other movies but I still got emotionally involved towards the end. I was also glad it did not end in murder. I thought it might with the obsessed character. Such a redemptive theme when this person admitted the wrong. Anyway, this movie did keep me on the edge of my seat. It was just different in an enthralling way. I may watch it again. there were a couple of things that happened which were rather something you had to disband belief with, but this is fiction so it did not resonant with me to be a distraction from loving the movie. As I said prior Romance is not a top movie subject to me but this time my hopeless romantic came out and took over. If you like psychological twists, fairytale endings romance, action, a twist of humor and lighter fare of creepy this is a good movie.

excellent

I've always enjoyed Josh Hartnett as an actor. I continue to do so. Jessica Pare', Rose Byrne, Diane Kruger and Matthew Lillard are all great actors in their own right. But, in this film, it doesn't matter really. While great actors give depth to any plot, there just isn't a cohesive plot to hang their performances on. Shame, really. In other words, I'm not inclined to like this film.

I read the generally very positive reviews for this film and checked to see whether it was on Prime - it wasn't so I decided to order a cheap used DVD of it so I could see it for myself. I wish I hadn't bothered! This film is SO pretentious and the situations in it are so far-fetched it's hard not to laugh at times, despite it being a supposed drama / thriller. There are an awful lot of ridiculously 'coincidental' scenarios, i.e. Lisa leaving her booklet with the pass to her room at The Drake in the phone booth. I mean … really? What on earth was the likelihood of that happening in real life! Josh Hartnett's acting was wooden and annoying, Matthew Lillard was playing Matthew Lillard, even Rose Byrnes was annoying and wishy-washy in her role. The only good acting was by Diane Kruger who was believable. I got so bored with this film even less than halfway through that I literally forced myself to stay watching it in the hope that it would get better - sadly it didn't and by the end I wished I hadn't wasted my time or money on the DVD. Also, I noticed when the credits were rolling that there were an awful lot of French names so I guessed it was a 'made in Canada' film and I was right. A lot of TV movies are Canadian productions and this movie certainly was worse than some of those mediocre movies although presumably it was actually released in cinemas. I'm only giving it 2 stars for Diane Kruger's acting and for the music. Otherwise I'd give it a big fat ZERO if I could.

I am pleased I watched and purchased this film, it did have a story which made you want to know the back story and the conclusion of this relationship with Matt and Lisa. The two leads Diane Kruger and Josh Hartnett ( who I became a big fan off in Penny Dreadful) have a chemistry. It isn't perfect as the story has some major holes, such as how the characters relationship ended is very weak... and when the truth is finally comes to light, once again not a very realistic reaction to what that truth means... so I can understand why this movie just misses being a stand-out film. But it is still an enjoyable movie to watch for some light entertainment, does show that the actors all were going to have bigger successes with their careers and it has a good soundtrack to it also.

It's a lot easier to understand than Mulholland Drive but rather harder than The Notebook, and almost as good.For me the star of this film is Diane Kruger, she is just stunning in looks, acting and you really feel for her in this. Josh makes a lifelike appearance to as the main character and is quite believable as he ties the story together. Quite why the two didn't try harder to find each other when they parted 2 years ago I do not know, but that is the only oddity in a superb film that is worth watching again and again as you piece together the time segments by matching clothes, actions, places and situations.

I cant understand why this film is not getting positive feedbacks. This has got the most gripping story I've seen in a long long time. The twists and turns of human behaviour when it comes to being in a relationship are the highlight of this masterpiece. It starts with a slow pace but as you go along the pace picks up and you really want to watch it till the end. I usually don't write reviews but I really don't want to waste an opportunity to give away five stars for this tremendous effort. Please do watch you wont be disappointed.

great thriller- even if you don't normally like thrillers there is something about this one that keeps you hooked right to the end-even though there are a few things that occur which would not normally in our days of mobile and internet social website connections-you forget these little flaws the minute you cast your eyes on Josh Hartnett! well worth watching!