Bridge Of Love. Review on The Bridge Of San Luis Rey Movie

The Bridge Of San Luis Rey was originally a novel by Thornton Wilder. The director who transformed it into a movie really did a good job cos the movie does leave you reeling.

The movie starts of in an town in Lima with a priest (Gabriel Byrne) facing the inquisition. His interrogator, an Archbishop (Robert DeNiro) is talking about Gabriels latest book which is supposed to be heretical and the reason Byrne is on trial. Byrne then goes on to defend and describe his book which is about the lives of five people who died when the Bridge Of San Luis Rey collapsed. His book, he says, is an exploration into why God chose those five to die and the almost invisible connections between these five and others within their circle of acquaintances.

The movie from here on is played as a flashback in the lives of these people and shows us their individual struggles- for companionship, love, respect, power, etc. and a number of other events all leading upto their deaths. We are transported to the small town and get to know a mother who wants nothing more than to be with her daughter and be part of her family (Kathy Bates), and a local nun with her own troubles caring over her health (Geraldine Chaplin). We get to witness a young starlet becoming a celebrity (Adrianna Dominguez), helped along by her mentor (Harvey Keitel), the authoritative village elder (F Murray Abraham) and a host of other characters.

The movie blew me away. The costumes were fantastic and accurately set the environment of Lima and Spain during the inquisition. It was a pleasure to watch this movie with it's slick camerawork and appeasing cinematography. Also the performances were excellent. Gabriel Byrne was endearing even in his small role. Kathy Bates gave a heart rending performance and Harvey Keitel totally did justice to his role. Reminded me of Christopher Walkens Oscar worthy contribution in 'Catch me If You Can'. The main surprises however came from Adrianna Dominguez, Geraldine Chaplin, F Murray Abraham and Mark and Michael Polish who gave powerful performances.

One of the few disappointments came from Robert DeNiro who really did'nt make that much of an impact. To be fair he had a very small one-sided role. Also, my brother told me he found the movie very boring. That's not the first time I've got this sort of reaction. People who find this movie boring also tend to find films like 'Seven Years In Tibet' boring. Another aspect I did'nt like was the obvious catholic bashing throughout the film. It put me off a bit.

Anyway, please watch it and send me your comments.

p.s. I don't think they show movies like these on T.V. I picked it up from my local DVD rental place(ClixFlix). I'm growing dependent on it for most of my movie needs.