FilmSnobReviews

Title: Planetarium
MPAA Rating: Not Rated
Director: Rebecca Zlotowski
Starring: Natalie Portman, Lily-Rose Depp, Emmanuel Salinger
Runtime: 1 hr 45 mins

What It Is: Two sisters Laura (Portman) and Kate (Depp) who perform seances both privately and in front of crowds are picked up by a rich film director following a private display of their skills. This director Andre Korben (Salinger) becomes obsessed with the girls following his private seance. An event which changes Andre and has him seeking the answers to existential questions we may never know the answers to. He’s seeking to speak with the dead in the hopes they’ll answer.

What We Think: This film is not very good. It suffers from awful pacing and a rather boring screenplay that not even a middle of the road Natalie Portman performance, which is better than most working actresses best, can help the dialogue here. There are hints of a good film here but Zlotowski never put the puzzle together. Georges Lechaptois’ cinematography is great here and that might be one of my favorite things. No surprise there given his past work including Twentynine Palms, which is a gorgeous film in its own right, and one that unlike this challenges the audience and every turn.

Our Grade: D, It’s really not great, but it does not drag the film into completely boring turf either. This film is quite meh. It tries to do so much with almost nothing to work with and instead of saying or doing anything meaningful it sticks to what wasn’t working, for the most part. This film is best viewed with the sound off, especially since it’s subtitled anyway. Gorgeous visuals don’t mix well with stilted dialogue and some odd filmmaking choices. This isn’t a film I can FULLY endorse, BUT if you wanna check it out it is currently streaming on Netflix!

Check out an exclusive interview with Natalie Portman where she discusses her character!