Pretty Good

Fantastic!

Funny, strange, confrontational and subversive, this is one of the most interesting experiences you'll have at the cinema this year.

A great movie, one of the best of this year. There was a bit of confusion at one point in the plot, but nothing serious.

This is one of Naipaul's first books in which he tries to capture the unsophisticated humor and simplicity of rural life in the Hindu community of Trinidad.The acting in the movie is superb and captures the essence of the book as perfectly as it is possible to do; in fact by adding the visuals it adds a lot to the story.. I did not picture Trinidad as scenically attractive as it is...I pictured a much drier flatter landscape. I also pictured the houses differently so in fact the movie opened whole new dimensions to Naipaul's story.I have read all of Naipaul's books at least once--the only one I didn't enjoy was the very last one (The Masque of Africa)--otherwise he is a genius. Criticizing Naipaul is rather like criticizing Tolstoy--and this movie does him justice: the cinematography is extremely well done all great acting all of it well done. Some reviewers say the actors do the Trinidad accent incorrectly--I wouldn't know so this possibility did not distract me.I will also make a bet that this movie as excellent as it is, made little or no money---such is the world we live in. Relatively few people alive today have living memories of the colonial world as it really was they have instead the PC negative uninformed view. Without authors like Naipaul this world would have vanished unappreciated and not understood.The movie does take artistic license a couple times...as I recall the young Naipaul did not have a good experience with the Mystic Masseur's visit to England..he was cold and haughty...Also the man who had sex with his bicycle I doubt was in the book it is too dumb. Neither of these things is major.RECOMMEND

anyone who knows anything about trinidad/trinidadians would immediately realize within the first five minutes of this movie that these people don't seem to take their subject matter seriously. why go and waste loads of money on a movie, when your actors cannot pull off a half-decent trinidadian accent? throughout the movie we have either indian or british-indian actors making a sorry attempt at mimicking trinidadian speech. why not go and hire a full cast of trinidadian people? the movie did feature a few native trinidadians and their perfect accents made the other actors' poor accents show up even more. i truly wonder why v.s. naipaul let his book get treated in this careless manner.

The only reason I didn't rate this film a 10 is because the ending felt a bit too abrupt; aside from that, it's a wonderful film. NOT dull, as some people are calling it. This film traces the rise in power of a man (perfectly portrayed by Aasif Mandvi) who has big dreams and manages to make them into realities. . .and THEN some. -=- minor spoiler alert -=- It's also a great cautionary tale as well, about what happens when you 'sell out' in life, either by trying to please too many people or becoming too power-driven by your own ego. These points are NOT rammed into the viewer's head by any heavy-handed means, however - it is a film of beautiful subtlety and humor. Except for that too-abrupt ending, Merchant-Ivory got this one right.

after making a special effort to get to see this movie..i was so disappointed..attracted by merchant,naipul, and trinadad..what a letdown..slow,dull, with a story that went nowhere..it definitely a film to miss