Purely Joyful Movie!

Best movie of this year hands down!

Admirable film.

Although it has its amusing moments, in eneral the plot does not convince.

It took me 26 years to get around to watching this film. I should have waited another 26 years. I tried to figure out what was going on in 1992 when this film was released that could possibly contextualize it into something interesting. I couldn't think of a thing. It's not merely slow. It's empty.

"At that moment I knew, surely and clearly, that I was witnessing perfection. He stood before us, suspended above the earth, free from all its laws like a work of art. And I knew, just as surely and clearly, that life is not a work of art, and that the moment could not last."This is among my favorite films. The photography is moving, unforgettable, etched in my mind. The writing passages are almost as memorable. The story pits two brothers growing up in small-town Montana, trying to break from an overly religious father. One rebels more than the other, and you know tragedy is not far. Though their views lead them to drift apart, their lives stay intertwined. It's a film about family bonds, capturing the moments, and the injustices, the inanities of life. It reminds me that life is cruel, but there are moments, however fleeting, that make it worthwhile.

Based on Norman Maclean's memoir, Norman (Craig Sheffer, Joseph Gordon-Levitt) is the older brother to Paul (Brad Pitt) under their strict Presbyterian minister father (Tom Skerritt). They get their love of fly fishing under the regimented teaching of their father. It's the early part of 20th century in Missoula, Montana. While Norman goes away to Dartmouth for 6 years, Paul stays closer to home for college and then writes for a Helena newspaper. Paul works on his writing, hard drinking, gambling, and fly fishing. It's the spring of 1926 when Norman returns home. He is unsure of his future and starts courting Jessie Burns (Emily Lloyd).With the Robert Redford narration and the long sweeping story, this feels like a novel turned into a movie. The good aspect is that it has the appearance of weight. The less good aspect is that it is meditative. I guess it's fitting for a fly fishing movie. Redford keeps casting the lines but rarely gets a good bite. It is in the casting of the lines where this movie exists. It's not particularly interested in having an exciting time catching fish. Even the big climax is left off screen. There is some beautiful cinematography especially with the photogenic Brad Pitt. It's a long slow beautiful movie.

Suspense abound! Not quite, but this adaption of Norman Maclean's short story drama certainly has plenty of emotion to it. Sticking closely enough to the source novel, the film doesn't seem to sacrifice much from the novel for a more entertaining film. Instead, being able to see in the film what the novel vaguely describes helps much in getting everything out of the story. It's clear the novel meant something for someone, as there weren't many times where the movie strayed from the book, only at a few points it adds new things to the story. The changes it does make generally aren't very important, in one such case, Norm having already known Jesse in the book is turned into a brief subplot where he meets and builds a relationship with her. It's not as in other films, where they take the name, and make an entirely unrelated story out of it. The film looks exactly how the book described. The setting of the story feels looks how it was described in the novel, feeling like that Montana the characters talked about. There isn't excessive special effects, everything for the most part looks natural, and convincing. It's not as if it's a film needed many effects, but it's nice to see how the film wasn't covered in unneeded effects just to make it look more interesting, at the expense of story, like other films.Perhaps the most important thing the movie has going for it is the acting. Starring Craig Scheffer as Norm, and Brad Pitt as his brother Paul, these actors portray the two biggest characters rather accurately. Along with Tom Skerritt as their reverend father, the actors look the part, and make convincing enough brothers. Together, they make the film more compelling, being able to pull off Norm's concerned, wiser personality, and Paul's tough guy personality pretty well.Overall, the film is well acted, fairly well paced, and good looking. It doesn't make us suffer through the long descriptions of fly fishing that the novel did, instead maintaining fly fishing's importance to the story without doing that. The most unusual thing about this film is that it's superior to the source novel. Any film accomplishing such a feat deserves much respect.