Very best movie i ever watch

The Age of Commercialism

It is an exhilarating, distressing, funny and profound film, with one of the more memorable film scores in years,

The thing I enjoyed most about the film is the fact that it doesn't shy away from being a super-sized-cliche;

This won't be everyone's cup of tea. It's a philosophical (or, perhaps, more accurately, a pseudo-philosophical) journey by a professor who searches for the truth behind events many years ago and the people involved. Some says it's a more general everyman journey. And it may well be but don't get hung up on that.Although it's essentially slow-paced, the pace is perfect. And it does have lots of drama in the 'past events' scenes and the professor goes through a fair bit of drama and soul-searchin of his own.It has a top notch cast, great scenery and high production values.If you want a real story populated by real characters and are not averse to a little philosophical input, you'll love it.

You stop being genuinely interested in what's going on on the screen after 5 minutes. The plot is nonexistent, the dialogues are just so artificial you wonder how on Earth anyone from the cast could even bother to take part in this.... And why all the characters had to speak that broken English? You literally struggle to understand the muttering and when you do, you wish you didn't. Why secret police officers wear black leather jackets all the time? What's the point of making such a movie? Did they want to show Lisbon? Talk about dictator regime? Earn some retirement money for Mr. Irons? I'd never know.... It's hard to even right 10 lines for a review after seeing this. But I had to make it to save other's time.

The title of this leads you to think it might be a film noir, but in fact it is about a man's search for meaning later in life. That man is Raimund Gregorius (Jeremy Irons), a Latin teacher in Bern, Switzerland. As the movie opens the time is contemporary (2013). In a unique way Gregorius comes by a book of poetry that has a great effect on him. This book was written by one Amadeu de Almeida Prado, a Portuguese poet, medical doctor, and philosopher who lived in Lisbon from the early 1930s to 1974. Outside the fact that Amadeu's story plays out against the historical facts of the dictatorial regime in Portugal during his lifetime, all else is fiction, including the existence of Amadeu himself.Gregorius is so taken with what he reads in Amadeu's book that he feels compelled to meet the author and drops everything and goes to Lisbon to see if he can find him. Once he arrives in Lisbon the main thrust of the story follows his detective work in trying to piece together Amadeu's short life that came to an end on April 25, 1974, the day the dictatorship fell. The story alternates between Gregorius' life in Lisbon and Amadeu's life during the 1970s. We get to know a lot about Amadeu and his friends; most of what Gregorius finds out comes from talking with people still living, mainly from two of Amadeu's friends and his sister (all obviously much older by 2013).The main insight into Amadeu's character comes from his writings. During the course of the movie Irons reads over a half dozen selections from Amadeu's book. He does a wonderful job in these readings using an expressive emotional tone. The readings are cleverly made to apply to what Gregorius is experiencing at the time of his reading them. I can see why Gregorius was so taken with Amadeu's book--the readings presented are quite elegant and I re-watched the movie so I could better appreciate them. For example, here is one:"In youth we live as if we were immortal. Knowledge of mortality dances around us like a brittle paper ribbon that barely touches our skin. When in life does that change? When does the ribbon tighten ... until finally it strangles us?"I felt that there was ambiguity in how Amadeu met his end, based on the comment Jorge made to Estefania at Amadeu's funeral, "You didn't really think I would do it did you?"Irons is perfect for this role. All the actors appearing in both time periods are well cast in this well-acted, complex, captivating movie.

Don't be put off by critics who thought "Night Train to Lisbon" was old-fashioned, too talky and lacking in tension, because there is something unique about this movie; by the end, it's quite an experience.Raimund Gregorius, played by Jeremy Irons in his slightly detached manner, is a teacher in Switzerland. When he saves the life of a woman, she disappears leaving behind a small book written by a man named Amadeu do Prado, and a train ticket to Lisbon. Raimund becomes intrigued by the insightful writings of Amadeu, who has since died. Admittedly, all this setting up of the story is pretty contrived, but the important thing in the plot was to get Raimund on that journey to discover more about Amadeu.He meets many people who knew Amadeu including his sister played by Charlotte Rampling, always an intriguing screen presence, she still seems to get plenty of roles with absolutely no loss of mystique. As Raimund delves deeper and deeper into the story of Amadeu, and his relationship with revolutionaries during the Salazar regime in Portugal, he becomes aware that much is missing from his own life.Amadeu's story is told through extensive flashbacks, with younger actors playing the parts of the older storytellers - maybe it's this element that some thought outmoded. Flashback was a technique beloved of film noir where we even had flashbacks within flashbacks. The structure of "Night Train to Lisbon" is not unlike 1944's "The Mask of Dimitrios". Although the plots are different, that old film was also about someone who becomes intrigued by the life of another man, mainly through the memories of others. I'm sure there are plenty of other examples.It wasn't until near the end that I realised "Night Train to Lisbon" had similarities not so much to old movies, but to a much older story: Raimund is inspired by the wisdom and profound sayings of a man who seemed better than other men, who spoke out against evil, became a healer and saves the life of a man whom he had every right to think of as an enemy. Finally, Raimund's journey has become more of a pilgrimage, and through the inspiration of Amadeu, he develops a more positive outlook on life.Although not exactly blinded on the road to Damascus, Raimund does seem to have an epiphany on the train to Lisbon. I don't know if the author of the novel, Pascal Mercier, intended such a religious parallel, but the script would have been too heavy-handed for any of the characters to have made that connection; it has power if the audience finds it for themselves.If a movie doesn't grab me, I can forget nearly everything about it by the next day, however I must admit this one has stayed with me. It's a film that gets you thinking.