Wow! Such a good movie.

At first rather annoying in its heavy emphasis on reenactments, this movie ultimately proves fascinating, simply because the complicated, highly dramatic tale it tells still almost defies belief.

The joyful confection is coated in a sparkly gloss, bright enough to gleam from the darkest, most cynical corners.

The acting in this movie is really good.

To be fair, I really wanted to like this film. I highly approve of independent film makers who can secure all the ends that it takes to produce a film and market it themselves. There were things that I liked and the film piqued my curiosity until about 20 minutes into the thing, I began to question creative choices the director made - and not because I was being overly critical. I was attempting to view this film through the lens of being an indie film maker myself.My kudos go to the art department, the set direction and use of props and costumes to make an authentic looking period piece. There's a lot that can be said for that. However, this film just has way too many nits to pick. The obvious one is the cinematographic choices, that resulted in a film that looked to be shot on a low quality HD camera, with no depth of field - and at 29.95 fps. This is glaring and totally pulls you out of any possible immersion, despite the brilliant landscapes, and shots of ships - trains - and characters.As far as the writing, there was a lot of quick, very well written, concise dialogue through the beginning of the film - however around the middle, it's as though the writing started sounding like it was still in a first draft state. The director began retreating to the use of tired clichés, especially during the scene where the protagonist has a gun to Nicole Leigh's head and the bad guy makes sexually demeaning comments to her...which then resulted in nothing - just throwaway lines that added nothing. This was extremely misplaced, as it simply felt shoe-horned in to give the movie a more adult thematic element. It felt forced, because this sort of behavior is not evident or repeated anywhere else in the film. That is probably why it bothered so much, because of the lack of consistency.The director obviously had a story to tell, and a lot of great elements to include in the movie, but as the movie pushes forward it really feels contrived and disjointed - like too many things are being pushed into the story and we're told most of it, instead of shown. The script could have done with a good re-write - and having the concepts *shown* rather than explained away through dialogue...which is a very wobbly crutch to rest the plot of the film on. Films that make use of a single concept and focus everything towards that singularly honed point are much better in leaving a lasting appeal...this is especially evident by the end, when the final revelation is revealed to deliver some dramatic poignancy...but left me laughing because it came from WAY out in left field. Why does this need to be an origin story of a character in classic literature? So much more could be said of it for using completely original characters and elements. Let the work stand on its own.I understand the super natural overtones that were mentioned from the start were the eventual focus of the film, but 90% of the movie has no supernatural relevance and actually was more of a revenge film with completely normal characters. Unfortunately, all these problems persisted and despite a solid effort by the actors to deliver, the movie putters out before the climax. I would have given another star for the writing, if it had been consistent, but the last 2/3rds of the movie stretching out into so many different realms couldn't make up for that.