Yeah, that's kind of like what Byzantium is like.
This 2012 British film directed by Neil Jordan tries very hard to escape the recent vampire conventions, but it doesn't really do it's own thing, either.
My Rating: 2/5. (Apparently, I'm more critical than Rotten Tomatoes are.)
I want to quote Maven here, who says: 'Vampire stories that go: 'I exist, isn't that creepy and unnatural?' don't really do anything for us anymore, because we've seen them before. For a modern vampire story to work it has to be 'I did something!'
I want to give Byzantium props for two things: the incredibly pretty visuals and changing the vampire mythos.
Now for the breakdown:
Characters:
1. Clara - Clara (the mother) is the more dynamic and more interesting main character. I really wanted to like Clara, but the movie doesn't really know how it feels about her and it makes it impossible for the viewers to make up our minds.
2. Eleanor - Eleanor (the daughter) is our completely one-dimensional, emo protagonist. She isn't exactly conflicted about being a "monster." Her big story arc is about not able to share her secret and all she really does throughout the film is wangst.
3. Captain Ruthven - This is the guy, who turned Clara into a prostitute. He is just a shallow, mustache-twirling villain. He's never given any depth or even a reason. He just does it for the evulz.
4. Noel - Noel is the guy Clara started... dating, I guess? hooked up with. He's sweet and really seemed to care about Clara and want to take care of her and Eleanor, yet he got a very bland and offensively dismissive ending. I felt bad for the guy.
5. Frank - Frank is Eleanor sort of human boyfriend and appropriately so, as he was just as one-dimensional as she is. I did not understand his thought process at all and that's really all I have to say about him - there's simply nothing more to the character.
The relationship between mother and daughter:
What relationship? The movie wasn't about their relationship and nothing was solved by the end.
Narrative:
This was one of the most boring movies I've seen. It never felt like the story was leading me somewhere. There was no story goal, nothing that points to where you are in the movie, besides the climax, which was the last twenty minutes.
The end:
This is not a good word to describe it, because the movie doesn't really "end." It just sort of... stops. It doesn't conclude any plot threads, not really, and it doesn't feel like a coherent story.
The romance:
One of these romance had no previous prelude or indication to it and the other was you basic emo whiny high-school romance. I'm only glad that it was a subplot, because it was really underwhelming.
Life Begins At A Man:
This is probably one of my biggest problems with the film. These two women just pop into existence one day, when a man shows up in their lives. They have no developed character before that and just seem like clichéd tropes. I didn't feel for them as much as I wish I did.
In conclusion: This movie sucked! Really pretty, though.
