In an exciting atmosphere, this movie follows the story of three different but greet kingdoms, where in each one, there is a struggle, as in the first kingdom sets a fornicating libertine king while in the second is the king captured by an animal, and in the third is a queen obsessed with having a child.
A series of comparatively pat resolutions and an abrupt conclusion prevent this from emerging as one of the year's best pictures -- even so, there's still much to recommend.
There have been a glut of fairy tale adaptations, from "Into the Woods," "Maleficient" and "Jack the Giant Slayer" to the network TV shows "Grimm" and "Once Upon a Time," but if you're a fan make room for "Tale of Tales."
Tale of Tales is great eye candy, and the awe-inspiring shots from Puglia's octagonal Castel del Monte and the moss-covered forest of Lazio's Bosco del Sasseto will surely leave you planning your next vacation to the south of Italy.
Garrone has created a world of both rich and ugly textures - visual, narrative and imaginative - that transports, delights and imparts disturbing lessons.
We're in the world of fairy tales, and one of the pleasures here, for me, was to be reminded how enjoyable it is. Like a good new song from an out-of-fashion rock star, the film rekindles affection for a whole body of work.
Tale of Tales is the most faithful and creatively rendered fairy tale onscreen to date, bizarrely satisfying and totally worth a patient, focused viewing.
The director invests his filmmaking with so much bawdy, darkly comic energy that it's all the more perplexing that "Tale of Tales" never quite stirs to life.
