Vashirdfel Simply A Masterpiece

MusicChat It's complicated... I really like the directing, acting and writing but, there are issues with the way it's shot that I just can't deny. As much as I love the storytelling and the fantastic performance but, there are also certain scenes that didn't need to exist.

Hayden Kane There is, somehow, an interesting story here, as well as some good acting. There are also some good scenes

Billy Ollie Through painfully honest and emotional moments, the movie becomes irresistibly relatable

po-adler This is a bad film. I choose it cause of Costa-Gavras and the "official selection" of Brisbane and Melbourne film festivals. What a mistake, Riccardo should end his acting career immediately. He exaggerates every little emotion and reaction. But it is even worse, it's like seeing a bad actor trying to play a bad actor. And the film is full of over-acted clichés, like a wife traveling single looking for sex, German homosexuals driving trucks, an "ordinary" man having oral sex with Elias, an unhappy elderly Spanish couple, a rich nice french widow etc. It's just to much. Directly when a new scene appears you know how it is going to end. Costa Gavras must have told every actor to exaggerate their acting. Can't believe how a film starting off pretty good can add stupid scenes one after another until the even more crazy and unsatisfying ending. I do hope there will come a good film about the same subject, since the boat refugees and immigration into Europe make a great scene for storytelling. Maybe the production was low cost, it could explain the failure.

j-connolly This tale of illegal migrants is masterfully told as a straight story of events along the road to Paris. In order to illustrate many facets of the illegal immigrant saga, the writers have gone out of their way to include many more events, mishaps, and adventures that could credibly happen to a single migrant. Some people may object to this, but it serves to make this a more universal picture of events that can overtake an exile.The emphasis of the story-telling is not a political or social statement, it's a strikingly enjoyable film with excellent cinematography which nevertheless manages to raise many serious issues. It's a story of human adaptation to loss of home and lack of normal human contact.The protagonist says little because he can hardly speak French or English. Language throughout the film is not very important as a result. The audience, like migrants themselves, sits through episodes in Arabic, Greek, French, German, and English. Along this rootless journey, he strikes up relationships ambiguous relationships along the road, mainly warm and yet fleeting - particularly the toy-boy episode at the start. There are many little subtle moments in the film, each making powerful comments about human moral choices under duress. Combining suspense, drama, and subtly thought provoking episodes, this is another lasting film from Costa Gavras.

Likes_Ninjas90 Elias (Riccardo Scamarcio) is an illegal immigrant trying to sneak into France by boat. Yet when the boat is spotted by the coast guard Elias jumps off the side of the boat and is separated from his friend. He washes up on a resort in France and then has to sneak around the island impersonating workers. He eventually meets a magician who briefly offers him work in a stage show and also tells him to come and find him in Paris. What follows is a road trip as Elias has to rely on the kindness of strangers to help him arrive at the city of lights.The opening scenes to this film, directed by Costa Gavras, onboard an immigrant boat, are easily the best of the entire film. The imagery of the immigrants literally ripping up their identities and tossing their papers into the ocean is powerful and symbolic. Yet the journey that follows after this is a rather uninteresting one. This is not a highly dramatic or emotive examination of migration but more the equivalent of a chase movie or a road trip. Much of the film revolves around Elias stealing people's clothes and then being chased by police. Once you realise that the film has very little to say beyond this in its narrative, the monotony of these scenes becomes clear. Although the visualisation of poverty in the film is sometimes apparent, it is treated shallowly.There are several bizarre moments in this film that do not seem to fit with the initial concept of immigration. The subplot involving a magician is by far the film's most tactless idea. Why Elias would volunteer to be in a stage show when he does not want to draw attention to himself is uncertain and the ending, which involves the magician giving out a magic wand, is also improbable and out of sorts with the gritty realism of the opening scenes. A moment too where French people gather in a community watch to hunt down illegal immigrants, as Elias is cornered and sexually assaulted, remains utterly bizarre.As a road movie the film fails because of the lack of character development. We never learn anything about Elias, such as where he came from. Thus it is difficult to know what he has experienced before and what is new to him on this journey. With very little dialogue it is difficult for his character to reflect on these events. We needed care about his character more. It feels like a more hollow film when compared to more sophisticated examples of the genre, such as The Motorcycle Diaries. A more conventional aspect of a road trip genre is engaging in a number of quirky characters that can affect ones journey. There are few relationships in this film. The most memorable one is Elias' intimate affair with a woman who says that she has a family somewhere. Yet this has very little impact on the remainder of the film once it fades.Eden is West is not a particularly memorable or interesting film, just one that is occasionally brought to life by brief moments of action. As a road movie it suffers from its lack of development and memorable characters. What seems like an initially serious and personal film deteriorates into something that is hollow and one dimensional.

kosmasp The main character isn't only innocent and naive, but he also is portrayed as good natured as it gets. Now you could argue if that really is possible or if it really works story-wise. But you have to suspend your disbelief here early on. The movie is jumping from one scene to the next, changing many locations and therefor never really builds an emotional connection with the viewer. While the segments are nice and good, the whole experience isn't as good as the sum of it's parts.It gets even more irritating, when almost every cliché get's played out in the story, letting the main character go through every possible roller-coaster ride an (illegal) immigrant can go through. Unfortunately it doesn't mix as well as one might think (pace and rhythm is all over the place and not in a good sense).