Nightwatching

The new film from the artist/filmaker Peter Greenaway. His very distinctive visual, and general, style make it difficult to rate this film on the same scale as others. Saying this, we can just about reasonably say that the film is neither very good nor very bad.
The manner of the story is lots of opaque, heavy, confusing scenes. The fact we can never quite understand who is who and who did what to who is partly a feature of the undoubtedly weighty techniques Greenaway uses; and it is partly straightforwardly bad storytelling. It is difficult to get too engaged when the plot is never really clear.
Neverthless, we do have some emotional weight with strong performances from Martin Freeman, and from the extensive characterisation giving us access to the interior life of espeically Rembrandt himself. The use of language is a little forced at times, but largely succeeds in mixing high formality with venacular.
All this is difficult to quantify, as it is all shot in a way like no other. Is it like a painting? In many ways yes, which gives it a harmonious grandure. Is it like a play? Again, yes, there isn't much use of depth. These techniques can be startling, creating impressed images. They can also be rather retrogressive; one yearns for the cuts to really have us AMONG the characters. We shall withhold judgement, saying only 'distinctive'.
All told, we are happy we saw this, even if we didn't particularly enjoy parts of it. The slowness and confusion did add weight, but also a large amount of aimlessness. A qualified good.