Knight of Cups

Okay, okay, I did swallow my pride and go see a horrible film. It’s an addiction, so pray for me.

With Knight of Cups, Writer/Director Terrence Malick has brought us what will likely be the worst film of 2016. Despite having a great cast, it is boring, lifeless and dull beyond words.

As I sat in the theater with two other people, I found myself looking at my watch in the dark to try to determine how much longer this agony would last. Even at that time I imagined what I would do if a doctor told me I had two hours to live. Clearly, the smart thing would be to play this film, thus making death a welcome diversion!

Christian Bale plays a guy simply known as Rick, an individual who spends the entire film roaming through the beautiful landscape and lavish homes in both Las Vegas and Los Angeles. Incredibly, there is very little dialog, most of the commentary coming from a narrator. For the most part, Bale is both sullen and morose, constantly appearing as if he has awakened from a weekend hangover.

While I’m certain that Mr. Malick’s film has a point, he did an excellent job in disguising it. Broken down to its basics, Bale reflects on a series of broken relationships, all with beautiful women, that collapsed for unknown reasons. It was clear that he was feeling pathetic for a very good reason, not the least of which was boring the watching audience.

This was another one of those films that collapsed despite a great array of talent. Mr. Malick must be one persuasive director to get actors like Cate Blanchett, Natalie Portman and Antonio Bandaras to agree to participate in this cinematic mess.

Mr. Malick surfaces about every ten years, his most recognized films being Badlands (1973), Thin Red Line (1998), The New World (2005) and The Tree of Life (2011). Though both The New World and Thin Red Line were praised by critics at the time, Malick found a way to dilute very interesting stories with meaningless diversions.

Quite frankly, I refused to see The Tree of Life based on the above reasons and the fact that it lasted close to two and a half hours (139 minutes). Knight of Cups lasted almost two hours, and I only can ask you to imagine what it would be like to listen to Donald Trump give a speech of that length. Need I say more?