Wicker ParkEnter the torrid and treacherous world of Wicker Park, where deception and seduction walk hand in hand. Starring an outstanding cast of Hollywood’s hottest young stars, including Josh Hartnett(Pearl Harbor), Rose Byrne (City of Ghosts), Matthew Lillard (Scream) and Diane Kruger (Troy), Wicker Park is a sizzling, action-packed noir thriller that will leave you breathless. What if the woman you loved disappeared without a word? Without a trace? How far would you go to find her again? When Matthew (Hartnett) glimpses his lost love (Kruger) in a crowdedcafÃ(c), he’s determined not to lose her a second time. But determination soon turns to obsession, as Matthew finds himself on a dangerous and chilling journey, where no one is who they seem and chance meetings with a sexy brunette (Byrne) might unravel friendships, careers and lives.No, Josh Hartnett doesn’t make the most convincing corporate up-and-comer in the world, but then Matthew, his character in this pensive romantic drama, is supposed to be uncomfortable in his business costume. He’s a photographer at heart, a sensitive guy who abandoned that passion when Lisa (Diane Kruger), his enigmatic other true love, abandoned him. Their romance had an oddly abrupt end after Lisa left without a word, so when Matthew thinks he sees her upon returning to Chicago, he starts lying to his fiancée and practically stalking his old flame before becoming entangled in a strange tryst with a lovesick nurse (Rose Byrne). The MGM publicity department busied itself trying to promote this remake of L’Appartement (1996) as some kind of heavy-breathing Fatal Attraction, and director Paul McGuigan certainly fills it with enough slick split-screens and MTV-soundtrack moments to hype it, yet it isn’t even remotely a thriller. There are flashbacks upon flashbacks–Vanilla Sky begins to feel linear in comparison–and the screenplay insists on spelling everything out so we’ll be sure to get how thoughtful it really is, but it all isn’t half bad. Though Hartnett is a little out of his depth, his gentle, beleaguered masculinity works well, and the women are both compelling: Kruger redeems herself after being more wooden than the Trojan Horse in Troy, and Byrne is quite good. Even Matthew Lillard does solid work as Matthew’s vulnerable, big-talking buddy. Somewhere in all of it is a surprisingly adult look at the things people do when love seems either too perilously close or too far away to believe in. –Steve Wiecking
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(out of 102 reviews)
Review by Y. ji for Wicker Park
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WARNING: SPOILERS TOWARDS THE END…I went into this movie thinking that it would be an entirely different thing, more fatal attraction than what it actually was. However, seeing the movie, I can understand how some people might feel as if they were jipped because the actual movie is different than what the previews make it out to be, but the truth of it is, this movie tells about the consequences of how one person can affect all those around them. In this way, I believe that its more real life than hollywood. Although I admit, the movie can be slow in the middle, especially when the viewer figures out whats happening and whats going to happen faster than the movie moves, it is towards the end where the plot really starts to pick up and I guarantee you, at the very end when Josh Hartnett and Diane Kruger are just about to find each other, but yet keep on missing each other by fate, you literally want to scream and throw something because you want it as much as they do. Its a great movie, but only for those that can appreciate it for what it is, a story about unbreakable love between two people struggling to get through all odds and accept it for what its not, a high-paced thriller.
Review by WickedOne for Wicker Park
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I was very skeptical when I started this film. I thought it was going to be another – boy meets girl, boy loses girl, boy mopes around for awhile before he gets girl back- film. I was sorely mistaken.
Josh Hartnett plays Matthew who is on his way to Shanghai for business, when he spots who he thinks is the girl that left him high and dry two years before, Lisa, played by Diane Kruger (was Helen in ‘Troy’). So lying to his new girlfriend he instead tries to track down Lisa. Following a trail of what, to him, could lead only to Lisa. He does a few things that make you question his sanity. When he finally reaches the end of the trail the girl he does find, Lisa/Alex, played by Rose Byrne. Obviously not his Lisa. But there is something sinister lurking behind the story of this girl and there are far too many coincidences connecting the two women.
Hartnett is wonderfully tortured, lost, confused, but at the same time so determined to find the love of his life. His film roles are steadily getting better and better.
Byrne demands sympathy from the viewer, bringing a whole new meaning to “I saw him first.” Matthew Lillard is great as Hartnett’s best friend, Luke, who is trying to support him but at the same time, knock some sense into him.
This was a great film. By the end of it I wanted Hartnett to find his closure so bad that I found myself yelling ” NO” every time a new obstacle was thrown in his way.
The final scene is exquisite and touching. A perfect ending to a fantastic film.
Review by Tucker Andersen for Wicker Park
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This film vacillates between romance, mystery and occasional flashes of humor, and the story is accompanied by a varied and sometimes overly loud sountrack. It is simultaneously a story of lost opportunities, the search for closure, and the pursuit of a dream (or is it a romantic obsession?) sequenced in an interesting and clever manner by Director Paul McGuigan. It is almost two hours in length and the storyline takes shape slowly at the beginning, so a theatergoer should be prepared for it to take a while to become involved with the characters and for the pace to accelerate.
The movie opens with Matt (Josh Hartnett) rushing to a Chicago restaurant to meet his girlfriend and her family before he is scheduled to leave for Shanghai on a business trip. (He is employed by his girlfriend’s brother.) Luke (Matthew Lillard), an old friend who does not know that Matt has returned to Chicago from living in NYC, spots him on the street as he is about to enter the restaurant and Matt promises that they will get together when he returns from China. While making a visit to the restroom after using the pretext of the need to make a phone call (apparently he doesn’t own a cell phone) when the discussion of marriage was brought up, Matt accidentally overhears a phone conversation involving a woman who apparently fears for her safety. Once he concentrates upon the call, he is convinced it is the voice of his former girlfriend Lisa, who mysteriously disappeared overnight two years ago. Her unexplained absence after failing to meet her for a planned rendezvous in WICKER PARK caused the heartbreak which resulted in his decision to move to NYC. The woman rushes from the restaurant before he can confront her, but he finds a hotel key left folded in a newspaper in the phone booth. One of the few predictable moments in the movie occurs when Matt decides he has to attempt to locate the woman and determine if it is indeed Lisa, with whom he is still obsessed.
So, Matt’s odyssey begins. He enlists Luke’s help, who is of course stunned that Matt would postpone his business trip and take the chance of completely ruining his current relationship. However, in a flashback we soon discover that Luke played a significant role in Matt’s initial meeting with Lisa (Diane Kruger). Furthermore, the state of Luke’s relationship with his girlfriend and budding actress Alex (Rose Byrne) leaves a lot to be desired. The complexity of the interrelationships betwen the characters is gradually revealed, and while the surprise at the center of the story is not as great as that in the SIXTH SENSE, many of the same cinematic techniques of time shifting, misdirection, and well disguised clues are employed. Since I do not want to include any spoilers, I will simply summarize the story by saying that the tension builds gradually as the degree of the manipulation resulting from the romantic obsession of one of the characters is gradually revealed.
This is not a film for moviegoers who like linear plot expositions and easily categorizable stories. The element which causes it to rise above the usual mundane two or three star film about a manipulative psycho acting out a romantic fantasy is the structure of the film. The story is told in very nonlinear fashion, with cuts to flashbacks of events two years ago becoming more frequent as the film proceeds. Flashbacks to events that have just transpired are also interspersed, but these are experienced from the point of view of other than the primary narrator Matt. On occasion the technique was disorienting until I became accustomed to it, because the viewer has to figure out when the action is occuring. But if you stay alert, it was a very efective way of illuminating the events involved and adding contex through the rapidly changing perspectives. I definitely would have to watch the film again in order to see how often such juxtapositions could actually be recognized by an alert moviegoer and how many were totally a function of utilizing closeups which obscured the totality of the action. In summary, this is a technically interesting and well acted film telling a moderately interesting. The tension is palpable, because the viewer is never sure until the end whether it is primarily a romance or a psyhological thriller. (I certainly won’t tell!) In conclusion, this is a story of both shattered lives and restored dreams.
Tucker Andersen
Review by Ron for Wicker Park
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I don’t usually go for romantic movies, but this one was incredible. It was hyped as a suspense thriller, but it’s really nothing of the sort – it’s more like drama or Shakespearean comedy. However, if you forget about the misleading hype, you’ll find this is an absolutely wonderful movie to watch with the person you love. The movie makes use of coincidences, but I think that’s a valid plot device when the story involves mistaken identities (see “Comedy of Errors”, for example). The story hooks you and keeps you interested throughout, and this is perhaps the most one can ask of any movie. Great dramatic entertainment, full of twists, and the ending is beautiful. One of the most well-made and artfully crafted movies to come out in a while.
Review by Jeff Rundberg for Wicker Park
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I’ll try not to make this sound like a love letter to Rose Byrne, but I apologize in advance if it comes across as such. I hope people will agree with me when I say that her performance alone makes this movie a must see.
Rose is not the only reason this movie is great. It is a heart-wrenching, tragic love story/mystery brought to life with stunning visual style. Wicker Park is a moving painting augmented by a poetic story. It is a tale of a man, Matthew (played by Josh Hartnett) desperately searching for a lost love, Lisa (Diane Kruger). The film is told in a non-linear fashion and key plot points are revealed at precisely the right time to keep the viewer guessing. This is kind of a spoiler; but the reason his love is lost is because of the manipulative scheming of Alex (Rose Byrne’s character). She falls hopelessly in love with Matthew from afar before he even knows who she is. Without too much trouble she is able to devise a plan which allows her to break up the lovers and at the same time get close to Matthew. That’s the details of this particular film, but what it boils down to is a classic theme: person A loves person B while person C loves person A. Unfortunately person A essentially doesn’t know that person C exists. It’s a basic story that almost everyone can relate to in some form or another.
Okay back to the main subject of my review. Yes, Josh Hartnett is well cast and Diane Kruger is adequate in her role, but the real star of the show is Rose Byrne. Her character is not fully revealed until 45 minutes into the film, but from that moment on, you will forever be under her spell. Rose is perfectly cast. No one can say as much with just their eyes and facial expressions as Rose Byrne can. Love, hurt, anger, fear, sadness, remorse, embarrassment, and elation are all easily displayed without so much as a word. And what a beautiful face it is, her eyes alone make me weak. Thankfully the filmmakers were aware of this and took full advantage; frequently shooting her in close-up.
Rose’s character Alex can easily be seen as the villain because she does everything in her power to keep Matthew and Lisa apart. Just like in real life, however, everything isn’t black and white. “Love makes you do crazy things,” as Rose’s character declares. It depends on who you personally identify with. Different viewers will sympathize with different characters, and that is a credit to the dramatic story and to the filmmakers.
As mentioned earlier, Wicker Park is beautifully photographed and edited (split screen is used frequently to great effect) and the music/score enhances every scene perfectly. Ideally I would give this movie 4.5 stars if I could (I reserve the five stars for a select few) and I can’t think of many better ways to spend two hours.