The story takes place on a film set in the 1930s. It is about a ship traveling to Mexico with many kinds of passengers which represent a society with many complex relationships and chaos.
Don't look now, but as you might expect with message-mad Kramer at the helm of this adaptation of Katherine Anne Porter's novel, there's a heavy allegory aboard.
Mountain Xpress (Asheville, NC)
August 07, 2002
It makes for OK drama all the same, but it's all on the heavy-handed side. Well, subtlety was never Kramer's strong suit.
Prestigious and literary cinema at its most ponderous, transfer of Porter's novel to the the big screen by Kramer (the wrong director) is crude and pretentious, but some of the performances, particularly Signoret, Leigh and Dunn, are good.
As glib as Stanley Kramer often is, there is probably nothing glibber in his entire output than this Abby Mann adaptation of Katherine Anne Porter's novel.
Director-producer Stanley Kramer and scenarist Abby Mann have distilled the essence of Katherine Anne Porter's bulky novel in a film that appeals to the intellect and the emotions.
