RyothChatty ridiculous rating

BoardChiri Bad Acting and worse Bad Screenplay

Sexyloutak Absolutely the worst movie.

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

BBogus The acting is so awful, watching and especially hearing (accents and voice acting reminds me of dubbing in cheap B movies) Julie Delpy is so cringeworthy. Even William Hurt looks lost. The story unfolds in a monotonous boring way, terrible script. Delpy should take lessons from successful actors turned directors like Clint Eastwood, Mel Gibson,... to see how it is done.

CelestialCatnip It's amazing that a film with such an intriguing story, breathtaking sets, and gorgeous costumes can be so god-awful! With the singular exception of William Hurt, the acting is just bad. Julie Delpy delivers her lines with the enthusiasm of a child forced into doing the school play. I've seen more convincing acting in porno movies. The actress portraying her witch lesbian lover is even more dismal, if that's even possible. I was hoping to be drawn into a thrilling telling of the "true" story of the Countess Bathory, but instead wasted over an hour and a half of my life that I will never get back. Avoid this movie like the plague!

berrin-cinarbas As much as I wanted to like this film, I was left feeling unsatisfied after watching it. It felt as if the writers were unsure of what direction they were taking, most of the time. It wasn't a horror, a psychological thriller, or an accurate historical flick... though it did have elements of all the aforementioned. I was also disappointed to find that (since it's such a dark movie) there was virtually no suspense or build-up. I caught myself growing bored at many points throughout the film, which is really surprising given the subject material. It doesn't help that the acting seems forced most of the time (as if the actors are reading their lines off of cue cards), or that Delpy and Bruhl have about 0 chemistry...I did, however, love the costumes and the sets, as well as Anamaria Marinca's unique character. All in all, I was just hoping for a bit more. A bit more horror, a bit more suspense, a bit more passion. This movie left little to no impression on me... and I was sorely disappointed.

Radu_A If one could rate a film owing entirely to the versatility of its creator, The Countess would be 10 out of 10. Julie Delpy didn't just helm her most ambitious project to date, she gives a carefully reserved, effective performance, she composed a befitting score, she had an active part in costume design, and her script gives the right angles at the right places. Why then does the final result impress so little, unlike her wonderful debut "2 Days in Paris"? Reason One: Insufficient voice coaching. You may think that's a minor detail - wait until you've watched this film in its original English. With the four main characters coming from four different countries, one would assume that their English accents would be balanced by someone - nope. The dialogue sounds awkward and sort of trashy. Julie Delpy's own cute French-American sounds odd in this somber tale; Daniel Brühl's German-American accent is so ridiculous that one expects him to pronounce 'I vont tu sukk ur bluhd' any second. William Hurt, being the seasoned pro that he is, smoothed his own accent to fit into his morose, cunning character, making him sound more European than the Europeans. Anamaria Marinca obviously had some serious vocal training, which elevates her performance, whereas Delpy and Brühl's romance scenes give off a feeling of unbalance and weirdness.Reason Two: Daniel Brühl. Well, this is a French-German co-production, so I guess that, as the unwritten rules of Eurofilm prescribe, there has to be a German lead. And Brühl could be considered a star. Yet he does not have the stamina to carry such a part; he mostly acts as a bystander. He's not even pretty, as he looks quite sick. And according to an interview I've read, Delpy isn't totally innocent of Brühl's look, since she mentioned that she didn't want him to shape up.Reason Three: German production values. The main production company involved in this project is Tom Tykwer's X-Filme, so this movie feels very German. If you've watched The Perfume, you know what that means for dramas like this one: a certain stiffness in tackling emotional content and rather Spartan set design. The Iron Maiden, which the Countess uses to bleed her virgin victims dry, is about the only visually interesting detail. The continuity is muffled, too; for instance, the escape scene of a little girl, one of the rare moments of suspense, is almost instantly killed off, quite literally, not allowing for goosebumps to build.It's OK that Julie Delpy makes a clear departure from the romantic fluffy stuff of her past. It's impressive how versatile she's become as a film maker. But given her talent for intelligent comedy, I wonder if a less serious subject wouldn't have benefited her versatility more. This not-really period piece and not-really horror flick will satisfy nobody and keep audiences wonder how much more it could have been with another approach.