Okay, so I’m halfway through the movie, and I know this is supposed to be a motherfucking good-ass piece of cinema, but damn it all, I can’t get invested. 

To the movie’s credit, it has a lot of great performances (James McAvoy’s in particular) as well as a great knack for creating sweet and beautiful scenes. It’s got a great track and some really good cinematography. The plot, for me, is okay. It’s kind of slow, but it’s bearable. 

HOWEVER. The relationship between McAvoy and Keira Knightley is weak. This is a love story. The backbone to the movie should be the relationship between the two leads. And, quite frankly, I can’t get invested in McAvoy and Knightley’s relationship. The actors have fair chemistry at best, and while they have a really cute scene shortly after McAvoy becomes a soldier and Knightley becomes a nurse, that’s it. There aren’t enough scenes with the two of these characters for me to care about their relationship. Yeah, I realize there’s a lot of off-screen buildup (since the two leads knew one another before the beginning of the movie), but this is only briefly touched upon, and it’s certainly not enough to carry the movie. We, the audience, are then left with a raunchy letter and a moment in the library on which to form our opinion on the lovers. And this isn’t enough to make me care. 

Honestly, I can’t enjoy this movie. It better pick up the pace in the second half because while it is visually beautiful and while it has some good performances, I don’t care what happens to the characters, and that disconnect really cripples the movie-watching experience. 

Iunno. I’d turn it off, but I really like James McAvoy and Benedict Cumberbatch (who, in my opinion, will turn out to be the rapist because of that brief scene with the cousin and the twins, wherein he’s uncomfortably affectionate and gives the cousin candy). 

Bluhh, iunno.