I have gone to movies that have bored me to tears but I refuse to leave because of how much the ticket cost. Then there are movies that while they didn’t move along at a fast pace, I ended up liking them more on the drive home when I thought it over. “There Be Dragons” is in that second category. When I thought about it after it was over, I got more out of it and I was able to appreciate the deeper messages inside.
Although not a perfect movie, the positive attributes far outweigh the negative. The scenes were often expansive and I liked the camera angles. The score was subtle where it swept you along without you really noticing it was doing so. However, the changing accents and often the same facial expressions over and over again could get tedious and the makeup on the older Manolo (Wes Bentley) looked a tad rubbery.
The movie covers the early lives of Manolo and Josemaria (Charlie Cox) and how their lives intertwined with one another but eventually fell apart. Their paths often crossed in their adult lives but not always with the warm reunion. Manolo’s son, Robert (Dougray Scott), who is researching a book on Josemaria, soon finds out just how hard it can be to learn about dragons in people’s lives and often what they do to tame those dragons.
Writer-director Roland Joffé has managed to bring out that all people have some form of a dragon to deal with in their lifetime and often how we deal with those dragons can have severe repercussions on those around us.
“There Be Dragons” is in limited release now.
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