One Truth Republic
Review: Emily Blunt carries The English
It’s good. But…
It’s not good. But it’s good. I might even go so far as to say that its pretty good. But there are big problems. But let’s start with the good parts.
The cast
Without a doubt the casting of this tv series is its strong suit. And not just because they were able to convince the incredible Emily Blunt but because almost all the characters are done well. The lead male, Chaske Spencer, is outstanding. I’ll reserve the main villain for the latter part of this review but the other sub villains and here nor theres are all interesting and contribute richly to the landscape.
But the star of the show is Emily Blunt who pulls you in from the very beginning and convinces you to keep watching.
She asks you stay after the problems start to stare at you like hungry dogs that want to be fed. This means that when she’s not in a scene … those problems stares turns into a glares.
Speaking of which …
The plot
It’s weak. It starts off weak and has some highs but overall it’s weak. It has lots of moving parts, in a lot of cases for moving parts sake, and other parts that are just unnecessary. Scenes that may have worked in an earlier version of the script but stopped having much meaning in the current one. The story could have been tighter and still accomplished the same narrative goal all while increasing focus on the heart of the story.
And the heart of the story is part of the problem. Emily Blunts character is the core of the story, or at least it should have been, but the plot tries to shift focus and make it other things, like a love interest or some unexpected drama. The director doesn’t seem to know what to shine the light on and fumbles around in the proverbial dark for long unnecessary spells.
The entire existence of Emily Blunts long lost love interest could have been completely removed or only very briefly alluded to. But instead we get long winded scenes whose ultimate point is lost or at the very best muddled at the end.
The script
The script is not great. Solidly mediocre. The writing and dialog is very clearly from a singular voice. There are a handful of scenes where you can hear the writer having the conversation in his head as the characters hash it out on screen.
The actors bring the odd decisions back to life and make them seem plausible but at its heart the script is poorly constructed.
The cinematography
You know that guy that comes to your birthday/graduation/wedding party and has the singular goal of taking all the attention in room and placing it on himself? The guy who just can’t stop turning the conversation back to how it relates to him and how he was the only one that knew the best answer/truth/option/outcome?
Well that’s the guy they put in charge of cinematography.
Every scene is a majestic wondrous gift from the gods. Every chance to showcase the brilliance of the cinematographer is taken. To such a degree that it loses all of its meaning. The scenes of significance end up looking and feeling just like the scenes about nothing because the cinematography couldn’t get it out of their head that they are a genius. A Picasso painting with light.
And even the scenes that look good always end up having something missing. Something not quite right.
Overall the cinematography is shit.
The score
A good score is one that you notice after the fact. Now one that screams at you every chance it gets. They must have hired the cinematographers sibling because we have a similar problem here. Not quite to the same extent but there are times that we are “gifted” with a vocalist whose singing ability may be great for those times you journey on the River Absinthe, but otherwise had no business in a western. Not even a spaghetti western wannabe.
I found myself often wanting to mute the tv and just follow along with reading body language to avoid listening to the mad screechings the director felt we needed to hear at that exact point.
The Antagonist
While most of the cast is great, the villainous David Melmont, played by Rafe Spall, is a low point.
Rafe Spall is a good actor. But this role didn’t realize any of his talent. This is where all the bad eggs come home to roost. This character is as deep as a petrie dish and just doesn’t ever convince us that he is real. Like a stick figure with visible strings we see the deliberate and clumsy attempts by the director to try and convince us to believe and it just doesn’t work.
Rating:
Talent driven spaghetti western wannabe that delivers by the skin of its teeth.
3 stars. Watch with low expectations.
Michael V Daguerre
