| Wicker Park | | Cast : | Josh Hartnett, Matthew Lillard, Diane Kruger | | Director : | Paul McGuigan | | Studio : | Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer | | Format : | Color, Closed-captioned, Widescreen | | Released Date : | September 03, 2004 | | DVD Released Date : | June 07, 2005 | | Language : | English (Dubbed), French (Dubbed), English (Subtitled), Spanish (Subtitled), French (Subtitled) | | Audience Rating : | PG-13 (Parental Guidance Suggested) | | | BUY THIS DVD FROM AMAZON |
Customer Reviews
| Rating |  | | Date | July 17, 2005 | | Summary | Ok the first time around | Content
 | This is a pretty good movie, don't get me wrong. The end kinda makes you mad. You find out she never really "vanished" like they say. It's good but not GREAT. Rent it, don't buy it. |
| Rating | | | Date | June 27, 2005 | | Summary | LOVE HURTS | Content
| In reading the publicity releases for WICKER PARK, I was expecting a "psychological thriller." Rest assured, this movie is not a thriller at all. It's a story of lost and obsessive love, and it has some good performances, but after watching it, I somehow felt cheated. Josh Hartnett plays a young up and coming exec who is about to get engaged to a society-climbing sweetie. In a restaurant, he overhears a conversation that makes him think his ex-love who left him two years earlier is back in town and he becomes obsessed in finding her. Diane Krueger is lovely as Lisa, the girl he lost, but Rose Byrne as Alex comes out the focal female character and her performance is rich in its self-centered obsessive love for a man she shouldn't have. Matthew Lillard as Josh's buddy is effective. The movie uses flashbacks to show us what is really going on, but an astute viewer should see the "twists" coming. The script also injects a possessive lover in Lisa's new life, but then drops him like they changed their mind. I kept expecting some kind of violent showdown but the script just dismisses his involvement. WICKER PARK has some moments, but it's a flat and unsatisfying experience. |
| Rating | | | Date | June 16, 2005 | | Summary | A STORY OF LOVE LOST AND FOUND... | Content
| This film, which sort of promised another "Single White Female" or "Fatal Attraction" in the trailers, delivers something else altogether. Matthew (Josh Hartnett), a young, handsome, Chicago businessman is scheduled to leave for China on a business trip. While on a business lunch, shortly before his departure, he suddenly hears a voice that brings back memories. He catches a glimpse of the woman speaking and believes her to be Lisa (Diane Kruger), the woman whom he passionately loved two years before but who had totally and mysteriously disappeared from his life, seemingly without a trace. As she rushes out of the restaurant, Matthew is unable to catch up with her, as his current girl friend is with him.
Still, he is so taken with what he thinks that he has heard and seen that he decides to chuck his trip to China and, instead, search for his heart's desire. His best friend, Luke (Matthew Lillard), helps him, after Matthew lays it out for him. Meanwhile, Luke is having his own troubles with Alex (Rose Byrne), his current main squeeze. Matthew's investigative efforts eventually lead him to an apartment that he believes to be Lisa's, only to find another woman there who calls herself Lisa but who is not the Lisa that he is looking for. To his surprise, this Lisa seems to have the hots for him, and he initially responds accordingly.
Nonethelees, he continues the search for his Lisa, and the viewer eventually sees them pass each other, as two ships in the night, so close, yet so far, seemingly kept apart by fate. Will they ever connect, and why have they not managed to find each other before this? These are the questions that the viewer begins to ask, and it is this that is at the crux of the film. There is more than fate at work here. There is an obstacle to their reunion, and what that obstacle is and why will soon become apparent to the viewer.
The first half of the movie is told with numerous flashbacks, as the director weaves in what happened two years before with the current state of affairs (pun intended). Unfortunately, it is done in such a clumsy way as to leave the viewer somewhat confused. The second half of the film is much better, as the flashbacks appear to make more sense and the veil begins to be lifted. The film actually starts to achieve some semblance of coherence and clarity. The eventual interconnection between the characters is interesting, but what the film delivers to the viewer is a far cry from what was promised by the film's trailers.
Rose Byrne gives an excellent performance in a role that demands much from her. Matthew Lillard is fun to watch, as always. Josh Hartnett, to my surprise, as I am a fan of his, gives a performance that is almost laughable. I was actually embarrassed for him. Diane Kruger does a credible job with her role. Still, given the direction of the film, it is easy to see why this film bombed at the box office. |
| Rating | | | Date | June 06, 2005 | | Summary | Storyline sucks. Let's get real. | Content
| This movie would have flown had it been placed in 1975. But in the year 2004, with all the advanced technology, and all of our communication options, it is totally impossible for two lovers to lose complete contact with each other. It is also almost impossible to have your one and only true love still be alive, but mysteriously disappear without a trace, unless she was kidnapped and being held hostage by a wild and dangerous gang of demented psycho baboons (which in that case one would have contacted the missing persons bureau). The couple in this movie are young, well-to-do, modern, cosmopolitan yuppies. Don't tell me they didn't have email, voice-mail, text-messaging, fax or any other way of contacting each other for those two years that they were apart. Total bull.
Once you take that into consideration, the movie just becomes pointless. Pure nonsense.
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| Rating | | | Date | May 15, 2005 | | Summary | Excellent - tricky - twisting - great! | Content
| I do not want to tell much about the story in order to keep the well twisted and interesting story hidden. If you like non-linear love and/or suspense movies with flash-backs which explain things or if you like movies like Hercule Poirot movies where every single item in the story is important, then this is a movie for you. After I first saw it, I watched it again, to see everything matching up. Very well movie with good actors. |
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