Friday 8 July 2005

The Name of the Rose (1986)

This must be Sean Connery's strangest role, even allowing for "Darby O'Gill and the Little People" early in his career.  Here he plays a 13th Century Franciscan monk with overtones of Sherlock Holmes who has been asked to investigate a series of gruesome deaths at a monastery.  His sidekick and acolyte is a very young Christian Slater whose older self is the off-screen narrator.  Based on the difficult book by Umberto Eco, this film could be heavy-going, but it holds one's attention through the strength of the acting and the odd visuals.  The company of monks look as if they were recruited from a gargoyles' convention and the ugliest of them all is Ron Perlman (no beauty at the best of times) who plays a snaggle-toothed hunchback. Hardly everyone's cup of tea, but well worth a look says Pretty Pink.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

007 as a monk. He still has that scmoozy charm in this role. And Christian Slater manages to match his schmooze, albeit as a younger model. Yum factors aside, it's actually very engaging which has a lot to do with the photography I think.