Customer Reviews

Immortality [VHS]

5 star:		(9)
4 star:		(9)
3 star:		(9)
2 star:		(5)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

When I first started to watch the movie I was a little confused about some of the things Steven (Jude Law) would do, but it all became clear as the movie progressed.You will really need to watch all the little things he does and read the things he writes (even if you have to pause the movie) to get the most out of this character and the movie. What I really enjoyed about this movie was the look into human nature. What makes a person good or evil and what makes us do the things we do? I really liked all the little excentricities that everyone had. We all do some strange things, especialy in private. Watch for the scenes with Steven and the police inspector the dialog is some of the best and the relationship that develops between them is the best thing about the movie. This policeman becomes almost like a father figure and Steven increasingly finds himself revealing personal things to this man. I began to enjoy the characters so much that I almost forgot that this was a vampire movie and not a doomed love story. This is a dark movie about a tortured soul so be prepared for that. If your a Law fan you will not be disappointed. I really enjoyed this movie and the cast is excellent. This movie does contain violence, language and brief nudity.

I wasn't sure what to expect after reading the other reviews of this film on AMAZON.COM, but I was willing to take the chance on a Jude Law film.

I would classify this as a drama/suspense movie, definitely not a "vampire movie." The concept is an interesting take on the whole vampire thing, but those expecting a horror movie, or lots of blood and guts, probably would be disappointed with this film. I didn't think it was a slow-moving film, as some of the earlier reviews had indicated -- I was completely engrossed from the get-go. Jude Law can even make his SILENCE interesting!

If you like smaller, well-made movies with great acting, this is definitely a movie you'll like. Give it a shot.

I found the talent of Jude Law late to the game, and had to go back and see much of his earlier work far removed from its date of release. "Immortality," or "Wisdom of Crocodiles" as it came to me, is one of the best examples of Law's ability as an actor. Of all of his older movies, this would be the one to buy.

Granted, I'm a sucker for an original horror movie - none of that blood and guts for me! I want depth, unique-ness, and a captivating dark tale. This filled the bill on all accounts. Law expertly plays a vampire, attractive but repulsive. It is believable because of this contradiction. Anyone as attractive as Law's character has to have their downfall. And slowly, the viewer sees the pain he lives with.

Highly recommended!

"Immortality," as the DVD is titled, or "The Wisdom of Crocodiles," as the original theatrical release was titled, is an interesting and partially successful film. Whether you're Whoopi Goldberg in "Homer & Eddie" or Jude Law in this film, it is simply an almost impossible task to have your main character as a serial killer. We don't like them. Even when they're as funny as Whoopi or as good looking & talented as Jude, it's an almost impossible task.

Po-Chih Leong who is British and has directed in England & Hong Kong and recently directed Steven Segal in "Out of Reach" makes an unusually good stab [pun intended] at pulling this off. It is handsomely photographed. The scenes that start the film with the car in the tree capture our imagination, even if we're not exactly sure how the car got there. It's one of those little mysteries that the film doesn't answer.

The cast of the film is excellent. As Stephen Grlscz who has the distinction of not having a vowel in his name, Jude Law makes him seem as sympathetic as possible. He seesaws back & forth between falling in love with Anne or not. Law's 2 Oscar nominations for "The Talented Mr. Ripley" in 1999 & "Cold Mountain" in 2003 show him to be a bona fide star actor. A role like Stephen Grlscz shows the breadth of roles that Law is able to play convincingly. We're not quite sure if he's a vampire or simply suffers from some strange blood disease. However, he does not shrivel with daylight nor seem to require a stake through the heart. His first kill on screen is chilling as it starts as a heated sexual encounter and ends with blood spattered on plastic sheets. When we see the wall with what is a long series of portraits of others he has similarly killed, we realize he has a long history. The film doesn't answer questions like how often he needs to kill to maintain himself, why blood from someone that loved him is more potent than the blood of a stranger, or how much blood he needs since he treats his first screen victim Maria like a 7-11 slurpee rather than a good-to-the-last drop Taster's Choice cup of brew. In short, it's best not to think too much if you want to enjoy this one.

New Zealand native Kerry Fox plays the first victim Maria Vaughn who's about to step off the tube stop in front of a train. Grlscz saves her, only to woo her & then bloodsuck her. Fox starred in "Shallow Grave" with Ewan McGregor. In "Intimacy" in 2001, she played the screen wife of Timothy Spall who plays Inspector Healy that investigates her death in this film. (She cheated on him in that movie; so maybe that's why he doesn't solve her crime in this one. -- I AM JOKING!) Her brief time on the screen shows her to be a superlative victim.

Romanian actress Elina Lowensohn who is prone to playing vampires here plays the escapee. Her thick accent sounded French Canadian to me. While she does a good job as the brainy engineer who can administer first aid to a gory industrial accident victim, I never really felt the chemical sparks fly between her & Law. It was a chilly romance.

One of the highlights of the film is the dowdy little detective Inspector Healy played by Timothy Spall. He played the effeminate opera star in "Topsy Turvy" and as the mousy little Peter Pettigrew in "Harry Potter & the Prisoner of Azkaban." Here he turns in a deep & nuanced performance. In one scene Grlscz saves Healy from a severe beating or even death from a subway gang and in another explains the nature of evil and good in everyone. There actually seemed to be more of a connection between Law & Spall than with Lowensohn. It might have been an interesting twist if Law decided Spall was good enough for an appetizer.

The film does churn toward its Hitchcock-like climax at a steady pace. It's an interesting evening's entertainment, but will not find a place on our shelf at home. Enjoy!

Jude Law gives his usual outstanding performance. This man has so much talent that it just isn't fair that he is also so pleasing to the eye. But I also found the supporting actors quite compelling in this film about a sort of emotional vampire -- a man who must feed on women who love him. Does seem like he should have had a couple of extra women around, though, in case there is a problem with one. At any rate, his relationship with the police detective who suspects him is really the best part of this film. I recommend it highly to anyone who enjoys a good thriller and, yes, a vampire movie without the usual amount of blood, etc.

An original view of vampires. I liked the fact that it was about the psychological profile of the vampire and not one of those movies where everybody dies and blood splashes everywhere.
I didn't find the love-story part of this movie convincing but all the rest was OK. The Grlscz character is deeply interesting, behaving strangely, filled with inner conflicts and drawn to troubled women. I really felt sorry for him at one point (when he was sick). I appreciated the fact that he didn't enjoy drinking blood, it seemed quite painful in fact and the idea of him watching everything that everybody did and forgetting to breathe (even though I didn't understand why)was really interesting. I found the end very disappointing, all the scene on the roof being quite pointless.
I loved Jude Law's performance, he genuinly was disturbing, as he was ment to be and he really made a big impression on me. It's quite impressive how he fills the silence without saying a word. You feel a sort of attraction to him, and he acts very subtily, with very few facial expressions and a creepy smile.

I saw this film under the international title of "The Wisdom of Crocodiles", which is a much more apt descriptor for this visually suave, emotionally semi-philosophical dive into vampire (or was it?) land.

A brave film if nothing else. The narrative is effortlessly constructed to intrigue, with some very decent writing. Especially in a scene with an innocuous looking Jude Law walking with a police constable, tossing around semi-baked ideas of the blurry lines that divides Good vs. Evil in the hearts of men. The soundtrack supports the superb screenplay immaculately.

Problem is, apart from dragging for the last half an hour, the movie ultimately leaves a taste of pointlessness. The entire narrative hinges on whether or not Law is a vampire, simply because we need to know why he acts the way he does. In the absence of that, it is merely a slow-paced tale of poof. Some dialogue about love and life is pretty competent, but the ending comes and goes without any sort of a clue as to what we've been watching.

Great actors and splendid camerawork squandered on something someone obviously thought was very clever and subtle. It is not.

I got this movie by mistake but wasn't disappointed. It is defitely not 'vampire' movie but rather an attempt to some phylosophical sharade about love and life (at least, that's how I understood it). Jude Law is as usual very good but the same cannot be said about main female actress. It is slow sometimes but this comes with the style of this movie

Jude Law is hard not to like. Even when he's the bad guy, which he arguably is in this movie. He plays a vampire...of sorts. He has no fangs, but this doesn't stop him from biting ladies' necks...or chewing them.

Law's vampire feeds on women whom he has first led to fall in love with him. For his survival, he needs the emotions they carry in their blood. Not all these emotions, of course, are nourishing, so after each feeding he coughs up a little mineral sliver about the size of a bobby pin, which he labels and lovingly files away with his other records of his love. He picks up Lowensohn (who played a vampire herself in the interminably boring movie "Nadja"), with whom he appears to fall in love. Or does he? This remains ambiguous. Like Lowensohn's character, we can't know for sure.

There is surprisingly little gruesome violence in this one, though. A couple of scenes are uncomfortably gory, and one of them is entirely gratuitous. For some reason, filmmakers chose to keep a scene in which Elena Lowensohn's character performs a tracheotomy on a construction worker. It's a nasty, bloody scene that is meant to show us...what, her resourcefulness? If so, it is a character trait that is pointedly developed, but to no further end.

Still, there is a certain, interesting tension maintained throughout. Both actors are enjoyable to watch, and the subterfuge between Grlscz and the police is cleverly, uniquely handled. This movie is an enjoyable addition to the vampire genre.

I like Jude Law. It seems like what gets forgotten when women are gushing about his looks is that he's a really great actor. He has enormous range and I've never been let down by his performance, and this movie didn't change my opinion.

I also think Elina Löwensohn is delightful. She's cute, but not in a conventional way, and that makes her interesting.

Still, good talent couldn't save this movie. "Immortality" is basically a vampire story without any of the trappings of your typical vampire tale. Jude Law, the vampire, is not afraid of the sun. He has a reflection. On the surface, he's just an eccentric guy living in London and seducing women.

Elina Löwensohn is a tough engineer, and in her Law meets his match. The plot of the movie focuses on their love affair and the tension that builds as you wonder if she'll survive. A secondary plot revolves around a police detective who's discovered on of Law's victims and has become suspicious of him.

The problem is that the two plotlines don't really tie together, and that seems to be a theme for the entire movie. The film can't decide what it wants to be. Sometimes it seems like an erotic thriller, similar to "The Hunger." At other times it's trying to be a tragic romance. There's even a bit of philosophy and action thrown into the mix. Ultimately, the movie is interesting and the acting is great, but it doesn't leave you feeling satisfied.