Great Barrier Reef, 2020. After a dangerous dive to save his wife Laura trapped while exploring an colonial British merchant ship wreckage, Jay Fennel, a rugged and attractive marine archeologist lies brain dead in a Boston hospital. Fennel's dream-like coma takes us back in time to Pune, India in 1778. The British East India Company is invading the palaces and a young captain named James Stewart, who bears a striking resemblance to Fennel, is about to embark on a dangerous mission. Along the way he encounters murder, deceit, betrayal and revenge. He falls deeply in love with an Indian She-warrior named Tulaja, an impossible love which he must fight for. Only the power of a ring can transcend time and save a life. Written by
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daciana dax from Romania
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I don't know how to describe it, how to put my finger on it, but it's pure and simply boring and it does not sink me into the story, it makes me want to fall asleep.
The story could have been good, but it was poorly execute. It feels broken, tangled in a silly way and the actors play is anything but credible. I started watching it 3 times and only got to the middle of it as I find it has no substance and nothing interesting.
Simply it is no "The mission" no "The fountain" no nothing I would want to watch to the end.
I give it 3 stars for the settings, landscapes and for the idea, nothing else.
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lealing from United Kingdom
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This is essentially an epic love story which was supposed to have transcended time and space. Josh Hartnett plays dual characters: one as a diver/archaeologist type in the 21st Century and the second being a Scotsman working under the British colonials in the Indian subcontinent in the 17th Century. Tamsin Egerton plays his wife in the 21st Century and Bipasha Basu plays his love interest in 17th Century India.
Having read an interview by director Roland Joffé about the film, I was expecting much more involvement of quantum physics to be present in the film. Not necessarily the entire film to be explaining the theory but at least more play on parallel universe and different realities. I was expecting more sci-fi along the lines of the Source Code or Interstellar. Instead what we got was Titanic crossed with Bollywood.
If you are a sci-fi fan then you may be disappointed but if you are a romance fan then you may enjoy the film. Think Time Traveller's Wife, The Age of Adaline and other paranormal romances.
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dave355 from Cary, NC, United States
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The score is terrific, the scenery is gorgeous, the acting is mostly pretty good, and the story is... nonsensical.
There are two story timelines. The opening story timeline is set in the fairly near future, sometime later in the 21st century, with what appear to be Americans. But we spend very little time there. The main story timeline is 18th century India.
The backdrop of the main storyline, in India in 1778, was interesting and realistic, except that the British East India Company leaders were all hopelessly one-dimensional villains. The lead roles were well-played, the lead characters were sympathetic, and the story was drew me in.
But when you tell a great, big, long story, it ought to have a point. It ought to have something to do with the climax. This one left me wondering, "what was the point of all that?"
Plus, there was almost no meaningful connection between the two timelines. It just didn't make sense.
And the story made a promise that it didn't keep. At the beginning, we see an interesting artifact -- a ring -- in the wreck of a long- sunken ship. Someone with the initials "D.E." must have greatly valued it, we're told, because he or she drowned while clinging to the purse which contained that ring.
So, who was D.E., we wonder, and what was his story? The next scene takes us back in time, to 18th century India, and we settle back expecting to learn the story of D.E. and the ring. But we never do.
We do, indeed, hear a great long story -- but we never find out about D.E. and the ring, or how it got onto that shipwreck. That was very annoying.
And what's with the two names for this movie, anyhow? Is it called "The Lovers" or "Singularity?"
As Maxwell Smart would say, "missed it by THAT much." I'll be generous and give it a 4, mainly just because I liked the music.
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Thomas (filmreviews@web.de) from Berlin, Germany
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Sadly, all the tragedy and drama in this 2015 movie did not really manage to escape the screen and really make me feel involved. "The Lovers" is Roland Joffé's newest work and I have to say I really enjoyed his "Killing Fields" and you may also have heard of or seen his film "The Mission". It's his first film in 4 years, but he turns 70 this year, so no surprise he's a bit on the slow side now, especially as he also wrote the script for "The Lovers" and it is only the third time in his long career that he has done so.
The central character is played by Josh Hartnett, once a big rising star, but by now disappeared a bit. Here he returns to the big screen and I saw he is also currently playing in the successful television series "Penny Dreadful". I've never been too big on him in the past, but here he is okay and his performance is certainly not one of the major flaws of this movie. Tamsin Egerton is one of Britain's rising stars, but this film will probably not propel her career any higher right now. It's basically a film about the clash of two worlds: on the one side we have marine scientists today and on the other we have ancient India. The cinematography and costumes are fine, but story-wise I never felt a really well-done significant connection between these two at any point during these 110 minutes. That's why I cannot recommend this film. If you are interested in the topic, I suggest taking a look at Ben Kingsley's "The Physician" from 2013. It's Persia ad not India, but I thought this was very well done.
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quincytheodore from Indonesia
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In a way the movie reminds me of Jackie Chan's The Myth. Both follow the story of a researcher in a quest to find ancient artifact. Along the way his consciousness is mysteriously and magically transported across space and time. Thus, he relives the past life in awkward parallel perspective. It has all sorts of epic romance fantasy elements, all of them are merely skin deep, and most importantly it lacks any charm on the characters.
The main problem is the movie tries so hard to pack beautiful scenery, it sporadically shift sequences without establishing the character in any meaningful manner. First act alone sees myriad of subplots, it immediately enters a conspiracy, political and love banters. Note that it opens with two different timelines and stories, so when the movie introduces predicament so suddenly, it barely gives any sense of familiarity for the characters and audience probably wouldn't care much for them.
Writing is similar to astrology reading, fortune telling, or straight up fortune cookie gibberish. It wants to be a romantic lore, yet it sounds very pretentious with its "love conquers all" cliché. This ultimately ruins the characters as even though the cast is good, the material barely give them any depth or recognizable trait other than fantasy wannabes. The drive for relationship is simply absent.
It doesn't create momentum, and the drab pace continues, or even worsens towards the end. It's as though the vistas are the actual star and these people are the background. There are some good views here, it's clearly an above average production with costumes, intricate sets and occasional action scattered between. However, without amiable personalities, it becomes a boring escapade with cheap plastic romance.
Flair for aesthetic won't help much if the core human drama is overwhelmingly barren.
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rae30123 from Toronto Canada
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An absolute waste of time. The storyline made no sense, the characters were very weak, and I didn't see the "love", for a movie entitled "The Lovers". The story could have played out better; there should have been an ending to the 1770's relationship, and how the ring got in the ocean…and not to mention how the rings could have brought him back to life. Don't get me started on that 300 year old witch or ghost that had the second ring. The premise behind the rings should have had a different outcome whereas the soul of a present day living Tulaja should be his soul mate, not some dumb treasure chaser that acted like Gollum from Lord of the rings. I'm no playwright but this should never have been produced, are we that hard up for a good script that just about anything can get green-lighted. I am a fan of Josh's...or rather I was. He's been away for quite a while; he should have picked a better project for his second coming. I'll give him a second chance only because of his prior work. If the next one sucks too he'll hear it from me. Next time IFC Films wants to throw away 35 million dollars I'll play catch with them.
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danew13 from United States
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I gave The Lovers a FIVE because I found it interesting if for nothing else but a look at the workings of the East India Company. Also the location filming was lovely.
The story deals with a golden double-ring set called The Lovers and two time periods, the near future and 18th Century India. I guess it also deals with the eternal nature of true love even though we never see how such love grows...rather shallow here. The premise of one love through time is not executed well.
It jumps back and forth in time but mainly is rooted in India where Josh Hartnett is a Scots officer in the British Army who keeps slipping in and out of his accent.
The film tries to implant a mystical air to the past and future characters who somehow will be linked through time, Cloud Atlas style. For me the weak point was Hartnett's character, a seasoned and intelligent officer, hypnotically walking off into the night alone right into enemy territory. That was the absurd part.
Also, we never learn how and why the rings were found at the bottom of the ocean. But I can't say film wasn't entertaining. It was...yet not very fulfilling.
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formatt2007 from Canada
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I was surprised at the bad review when I started watching the film. A lot of effort went into this production, with good acting, an interesting storyline, time travel, adventure and history. The chase to ave or kidnap the queen kept me glued to the screen. It was a thrilling roller coaster for about three-quarters of the film. The last quarter gave mixed messages, jumbled conclusions and added loose ends. Where was the director, did he fall asleep? the whole story hinges on an underwater discovery of a sunken British ship. What ship? Who was on it? Who drowned? The last time we saw the rings they were in the hands of the two characters in 1778 in a forest in India. How did the rings get on a ship? Not by the dead character in the forest! The last quarter of the film simply sinks the movie.
Neve Campbell was originally cast to play Laura Fennel but dropped out due to pregnancy.Neve was replaced by the actress Tamsin Egerton.
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Brendan Fraser, Aishwarya Rai Bachchan and Vivek Oberoi were originally slated to star.
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Olga Kurylenko was originally slated to star as Laura Fennel. Kurylenko was replaced by Neve Campbell who was then replaced by Tamsin Egerton.
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Alice Englert suffered heatstroke during the shoot of the film in India and was hospitalized for two days.
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Bipasha Basu replaced Aishwarya Rai Bachchan in the role of Tulaja Naik because Rai was no longer available on the dates of filming.
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Abhay Deol joined the cast of The Lovers (2015) to get the opportunity to work with Roland Joffè , whose films, The Killing Fields (1984) and The Mission (1986), are among his favorites.
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Bipasha Basu almost got dropped from the project because of her hectic Bollywood schedule which left her with little time to prepare for her role. Roland Joffè wanted her to train for a month like the rest of the cast but she could give only a week for preparations.
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British Actor Martin Delaney was originally hired to play the role of Matt, Jake and Laura Fennel's young American boss in the movie, but had to pull out at the last minute, due to his filming clash on Kathryn Bigelow's Zero Dark Thirty.
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Bipasha Basu was encouraged to sign up for the role of Tulaja Naik by Hilary Swank.
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Tusshar Kapoor was signed for Abhay Deol's role but later opted out.
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first anglo maratha war|reincarnation|
AKAs Titles:
Certifications:
Singapore:PG13 / USA:R