Director: Nae Caranfil
Writer: Nae Caranfil (Screenplay)
Starring: Vera Farmiga, Mark Strong, Harry Lloyd, Anton Lesser, Andrew Buckley, Joe Armstrong
Plot: A Romanian police officer teams up with a small crew of old friends from the World War II Jewish Resistance to pull off a heist by convincing everyone at the scene of the crime that they are only filming a movie.
Runtime: 1 Hour 52 Minutes
There may be spoilers the rest of the review
Verdict: Quirky Comedy
Story: Closer to the Moon starts as young man Virgil (Lloyd) sees a bank robbery being filmed, only it was a real robbery, stumbling into the world of film Lloyd becomes a natural behind the camera and is hired to work with the robbers to tell the story of these once heroes of the Jewish Resistance in World War II and why they turned to a life of crime.
The crew are led by Max (Strong) works to produce the film about the robbery, which is used to try and explain just what the motivation behind his crime, poor Virgil ends up in the middle of the authorities wanting the truth and the criminals looking for an escape.
Thoughts on Closer to the Moon
Characters – Max is the leader of the Jewish Resistance group from the war, he is now high up in the police only to turn his back on the law for a robbery. He is sentenced to death but before he is executed he must help create a propaganda film about what will happen if you commit crime. Alice is the only lady on the crew, she has a history which shouldn’t put her near this world Alice fills in most of the gaps in the story for Virgil. Virgil is the young man inspired to became involved in film after witnessing the robbery, he ends up being the cameraman on the film about the robbery finding himself caught in the middle of everything.
Performances – Mark Strong and Vera Farmiga are great actors and this film shows them at their best without being the most memorable, they enjoy the comedy side of the story while playing the powerful side needed. Harry Lloyd is the new coming to the film and he is good through the film too.
Story – The story looks at how different countries with communist beliefs behind how things are run and how the people were wanting to be against the controlling system would go about changing things. While this does look at how a heist could get out of control and covered up to be what the government want to see happen with the story. in the end we do try to have too much balanced here, so we lose focus at times to where the film wants to story to be told though.
Comedy – This is mostly quirky comedy, it hits more often than it misses but doesn’t do enough to make everything memorable.
Settings – The film is set in Romania which is meant to show how the different sides came together to make this event happen with post world war II rules.
Scene of the Movie – The heist is fun to watch.
That Moment That Annoyed Me – We jump between the characters too often to understand who the lead is meant to be.
Final Thoughts – This is an interesting comedy drama, it tells an interesting story as it focuses on wanting to be remembered more than anything else.
Overall: One for the comedy fans to try.
Rating
