PhilPaine.com

I’ve nev­er under­stand why this won­der­ful film had such a poor crit­i­cal recep­tion. Crit­ics com­plained that they could not fol­low the sto­ry. In fact, this medieval mys­tery, a lov­ing trib­ute to Conan Doyle’s Sher­lock Holmes sto­ries, by Umber­to Eco was very faith­ful­ly trans­lat­ed to the screen. Every­thing is per­fect­ly clear if the view­er actu­al­ly pays atten­tion (which I have not noticed film crit­ics being par­tic­u­lar­ly good at). All the per­for­mances are good, but Sean Con­nery, as the Frances­can detec­tive William of Baskerville, is superb. You can tell when an actor under­stands, not only the mean­ing and con­text of his lines, but their impli­ca­tions as well. Yes, the film is slow­ly paced, and requires some effort from the view­er to appre­ci­ate. But it has moments of great beau­ty, espe­cial­ly when William’s char­ac­ter is revealed in his inter­ac­tions with his novice, Adsel of Melk (Chris­t­ian Slater). I strong­ly rec­om­mend this film.