I saw it on a plane and it was slightly better than I expected from the first few minutes of it. I assume some of you have seen it so what did you think? I thought the part where the guy smacked the lady was pretty funny. He was super gay but I started liking him after that.
Source: https://ohthatfilmblog.com/2020/11/11/the-burnt-orange-heresy-2019/
As the UK returns to another month long period of long down, I must return to the tried and tested world of VOD for at least the next few weeks. Uncharacteristically, this time of year when I would usually be starting to encounter a string of real Oscar contenders is turning out to be rather slim pickings. With interesting looking releases few and far between right now, I opted for The Burnt Orange Heresy.
Based on a 1971 novel by Charles Willeford, The Burnt Orange Heresy tells the story of James Figueras (Claes Bang), an art critic who is enlisted by a rich collector (played by Mick Jagger) to interview and ultimately steal a work of art by one of the world’s most famously reclusive painters, Jerome Debney (Donald Sutherland).
Here’s the thing. This movie markets itself as something of an ‘art world thriller’, with the distinct failure of not being particularly thrilling until the last five or ten minutes. All of the ingredients are here to make something really interesting, but unfortunately what unfolds on screen is rather dull with the exception of a very condensed and underplayed set of climactic scenes.
Perhaps I don’t know enough about art or haven’t spent enough time in the atmosphere of the art world, but the air of pretension and smugness that permeates across the narrative makes for very off putting viewing. Long, luxurious musings about the impact and importance of various art movements and individuals make up the bulk of the film’s dialogue, and whilst there isn’t anything inherently wrong with that when it is done well, the lines uttered in The Burnt Orange Heresy feel incredibly self indulgent and inorganic. The whole thing is very much a case of ‘actors saying lines’ rather than ‘characters having conversations’, and it starts to get quite grating as the minutes tick by.
The premise of the film is promising enough, an art theft with lots of personal baggage interwoven throughout the plot, but there is just something about it that falls incredibly flat. There is a certain aesthetic charm to the picture, but aside from looking pretty and boasting attractive locations, there is very little that catches ones attention in the intended way. Don’t go in expecting any kind of high octane heist flick, you certainly won’t find one here. For a film labeled a ‘thriller’, The Burnt Orange Heresy
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