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14 out of 20 people found the following comment useful :-
Sickening: please read the novels, 25. September 2001
2/10
Author: Keith F. Hatcher von La Rioja, Spain

It is perfectly comprehensible that in converting a book into a film, certain aspects become altered. There will always be deviations from perhaps the original idea, and of course certain literary concepts will be lost. Only very occasionally does a film come out that may seriously be considered a faithful adaptation of the novel in question. What is totally incomprehensible is the mutilation suffered by the highly readable 'La Tabla de Flandes' by the most popular Spanish author Arturo Pérez-Reverte. The novel is set in Madrid – the film moved that scenario to Barcelona. The quiet, absorbed, meditative intellectual chess-player Muñoz in the book was replaced for the film by a vulgar, gaudy, flamboyant, almost gypsy-looking, blonde called Domenec, and the nicely composed Spanish señorita called Julia was transposed into a terribly British Kate Beckinsale. Indeed, all those fine characters penned by Pérez-Reverte were transformed into British Isles actors. Apart from these unbelievable – and unforgivable – changes of convenience, the film hustles along from scene to scene in a highly disordered and accident-ridden way, confusing those who have not read the novel, angering those who have, and no doubt leaving the author feeling nauseous.

I have read just about everything Arturo Pérez-Reverte has published to date. In film versions I have only seen 'La Tabla de Flandes' and 'Territorio Comanche' (qv). Suffice to say: forget about the films in all cases, and Sr. Pérez-Reverte himself is the first to veto these films. But if you would like some challenging, exciting reading of good style and pace, carefully meditated and ingenious plots, frequently based on real history and exhaustive investigations to prepare them, I recommend in the following order: El Hussar, Territorio Comanche, El Maestro de Esgrima (q.v. - 1992 directed by Pedro Olea and worth a watch), El Club Dumas, La Tabla de Flandes, and La Piel del Tambor, as well as the 'Capitán Alatriste' series – all available in English (am not certain about the first title being in English) and probably in French and German, as well as other languages.

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9 out of 15 people found the following comment useful :-
B-movie at best, not Kates best, predictable, 9. Oktober 2004
2/10
Author: gregg-cindybrink von Arizona, USA

This movie is a very poor translation from the novel. Loosely based at best, with location and characters changed to the point where they are barely recognizable. The original plot of this story was intriguing and one that would make a great movie, had it been written with clarity and thought. However this version is designed with plenty of liberties taken on character development and plot continuity. Some I am sure would love the generous portion of nudity without reason or cause. Kate Beckinsale wandering around on the screen naked for no apparent reason is something I doubt we would see much of now. If you enjoy laughing over a miserable attempt to make a mystery, then by all means, rent this one, have some friends over, make popcorn, and have a cooler of beer on hand, and prepare to be entertained. But if you are looking for an edge of your seat afternoon of entertainment, look elsewhere.

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2 out of 2 people found the following comment useful :-
I liked Uncovered _ SPOILERS (Maybe), 19. August 2007
8/10
Author: ardie_too-1 von United States

*** This comment may contain spoilers ***

Uncovered isn't Citizen Kane. It's a light mystery involving a painting that's being restored. The cast was more than up to the job, but for all but one of them the performances were average.

Other than the city of Barcelona, the single stand-out member of the cast is Peter Wingfield playing the rough, small-time, self absorbed and slightly oily gigolo, Max LaPena. He pulls this role off to perfection. He's young, gorgeous, not as smooth or as smart as he thinks he is and although he's a total brat, there's a desperate vulnerability to Max that would be very attractive to many women. Max LaPena is a street kid who's parlayed his face and body into a marriage with the greedy, controlling, grand-daughter, and sole heir of the aristocratic Spanish family that owns the mysterious painting. Max, as do others in this film, has his own dreams regarding the painting and isn't above using his assets to make those dreams come true. He's wonderfully amoral and by far the most interesting character in Uncovered.

In this mildly entertaining film it's the scenes of beautiful Barcelona and an equally handsome and very talented Peter Wingfield that make it worth the rental fee or purchase price.

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1 out of 1 people found the following comment useful :-
nice pleasant funny thriller, 14. April 2006
9/10
Author: cutedoggie von India

I felt this was a nice flick,a very different concept from what i've seen so far,of thriller movies.And the mood of the movie in spite of it being a thriller,was very light which made it all the more enjoyable with funny scenes aplenty in between.and the most surprising thing was that Kate Beckinsale kind of looks nice even with the ultra short hair,very unexpected i should say.

Nice performance by Kate Beckinsale,and the rest of the crew.Two of the nude scenes could've been done away with and one in particular,where she stares at the picture naked.There was really no need for that i felt. But it was that casual theme of the movie that you wouldn't really say it doesn't fit in.Thats about it,overall an enjoyable movie.

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8 out of 15 people found the following comment useful :-
An Incredible and Complex Story, With Kate Beckinsale in the Beginning of Career, 20. Dezember 2003
Author: Claudio Carvalho von Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

Julia (Kate Beckinsale) is a restorer working in a five hundred years old painting, which theme is a chess game: there are two men playing chess and a woman watching them. This painting will be sold in an auction after the restoration, and the amount will be split among the owner, an old man who lost his wealthy, Julia's best friend Menchu (Sinéad Cusack) and her partner. Max and Lola, relatives of the owner, are very interested in the selling. Julia has no family and was raised by Cesar (John Wood), who has a fraternal love for her. Cesar is also homosexual. Julia finds a hidden message in Latin in the paint, an after some investigation, she finds out that the translation would be `Who killed the knight?' Soon, many characters are associated to the pieces of the chess and are killed, following the movements of the game in the painting. This incredible and complex plot is a great disappointment. One of the attraction is Kate Beckinsale in the beginning of her career, with a beautiful body and breasts, but with a rough and common face. Presently, nine years older than in this movie, she is very gorgeous, very well produced in her films, with a delicate face, thin nose, beautiful and long hair and wonderful costumes. My vote is five.

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Kate and Barcelona, 23. Mai 2008
Author: ruiresende84 (ruiresende84@gmail.com) von Porto, Portugal

This is a worthwhile experience, despite all the many flaws the film has. It's a weak work in most of the skills you may think of, related to film technique, and film expression:

The acting is childish, this applies to practically every participant. Exception made to Beckinsale, she moves around in a naive boyish manner, but she distills sex, she is that character who concentrates attentions, without being excessively aware of that. She does it well. The rest of the acting is weak. The editing doesn't help as well. The premises for the montage work in a film such as this one weren't so hard to follow. They just had to tell physical actions, linear and common. Yet there are transitions, basic continuity problems that aren't solved, expressions in the faces that change, and so on. The music is also not well placed, it's a bad soundtrack in its own musical value, but above all in the mood that transmits. The tribal references weren't needed, and in the kind of story depicted, noir influenced, it would have been nice to have the music link the sets and evolutions in the story line.

But there are three things for which i think this is worth taking a look. One is the narrative structure, how the story moves on. This is based on a novel by Pérez-Reverte, the man who also wrote Ninth Gate. So we have a merging of art and life, the story happening in front of us was "written" or at least determined many years ago, buy an artist, in this case a painter. The first scene is masterful in transmitting this, really it was one of the most economic and meaningful first scenes i saw ever. It basically starts with a closeup of a hand in a painting (a hand as a synonym for power, ability to do things), and the camera moves away from the painting (it moves, it's not a zoom out)and we get to see the border of the painting fully merged with the "real" environment surrounding it. This illusion of merger works for a few moments after which we get into the environment and momentarily forget the painting. This really works.

Other thing is the use of House Batló, by Gaudi. It's interesting how the camera (and the editing) lies about the building, to enhance it's qualities. It's not a particularly brilliant exploration of the space, but it's quite competent: what happens is, we get Beckinsale going up the stairs that lead to the first floor, she rings the bell in that first floor. These stairs are beautiful, they curve like the back of an animal, you get the sensation of elevation, instead of going up. Than this is edited and the inner space we get is from inside the attic, which is built with bows that remind an animal spine and bones. Later in the film, we have an outside establishing shot that leads the camera, from the outside, all the way up to the attic. We understand that the character lives in the attic, not in the first floor. This was interesting and showed a specific interest in playing with the house. A side note is that this film is a good opportunity for you to check the great ground floor of the house, which is today polluted by the bars which conduct the tourists, and the tourists themselves, lining up to get in, and filling the sidewalk around. Pity. I have a theory that tourism is literally killing and sucking life out of our best places in the world, but this is another discussion.

Anyway, the touristic gaze can also be seen in the shots that depict the city. Here we also get lies, usually related to the intention of getting the establishing shots. Here i think they messed up. They didn't have to show all the known places all the time. There are fantastic relatively hidden places in that city that show more of its mood and life than the monuments. One of those places is actually used, the St Antoni market (the protagonist lives in front of it). The place is alive, and they use it well in some scenes. But than they lie about the city, so we have her going from Batló, to Rambla, to the Temple, to the market as if they were close enough to walk to, one after the other, sequenced like i said. It's a lie, i have nothing against it, but i have against making the postcard taking nothing useful out of it. A good use of common architecture is the one made with Beckinsale's house, especial its central stairs, and central lifter. The use of Park Guëll is not particularly interest, except for some movement between columns, but that's it. And in that movement, they inserted some staged flirting between couples. Very poor, very artificial, they didn't need to do it, the park has an interesting life on its own.

My opinion: 3/5

http://www.7eyes.wordpress.com

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1 out of 2 people found the following comment useful :-
a lovely actress, an interesting story, 24. April 2007
7/10
Author: David Bogosian von United States

The story behind this movie is quite interesting. Perhaps for some the real mystery was obvious all along, but for me, it held my attention for the whole duration, and it took a second viewing to fully unravel the threads.

The real gem in this movie is Ms. Beckinsale. She is radiantly lovely throughout, and there is a strong sensuality about her that pervades the entire movie. And yes, those who long to see her unclothed will not be disappointed. Even with clothes on, though, she manages to exude this alluring aura that is irresistible.

The supporting cast is mixed. Perhaps the best is the investigating police detective, who is a classic. The gigolo guy is rather over the top.

I also wish they had not inserted those brief historical re-enactments, as they neither fit well into the narrative thread, nor are they in any way convincingly real.

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1 out of 2 people found the following comment useful :-
Succeeds in bringing life to the story but fails to convince., 6. Juni 2006
6/10
Author: ford56 von Bing Dao

*** This comment may contain spoilers ***

This film has had some negative reviews but I don't feel that they are entirely fair. The book that the film is based on is very literary and lifeless and the events improbable. So even though the book has a clever plot it is TOO clever. It's like clockwork where you can see little wheels moving instead of living people. The film tries to correct this by changing it into a story of characters of flesh and blood that can arouse the interest of the audience. It succeeds in some ways but the whole thing somehow falls apart and never manages to be entirely engaging or convincing. A good example of this is that the reason why and how the murders have a connection with the painting and the chess problem is never explained in the film. I mean why would the murderer bother to connect what he does to the chess problem? It's explained in the book but not the film. It's still worth watching and it certainly has more life in it than the book.

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1 out of 2 people found the following comment useful :-
This may contain spoilers., 28. März 2000
5/10
Author: Maria-Venetia Kyritsi (mvk0016@hotmail.com) von Athens, Greece

*** This comment may contain spoilers ***

Uncovered is a little cute film that doesn't have much to say but says what it has quite charmingly. It was actually the plot that led me to seeing it and actually it turned out to be not exactly as I expected. Kate Beckinsale restores paintings. When she accidentally finds a hidden inscription that translates in Latin as "Who killed the knight?" in a 500 year old Flemish painting that passed from generation to generation in a certain rich family, she decides to find everything about it and to uncover the mystery that surrounds it. The painting depicts a chess game between two noble men and the hidden inscription leads her to believe that one of them was wrongly murdered and that the painter wanted to uncover the injustice done without putting himself in danger. But as she starts searching deeper and deeper the people around her meet with sudden and unjustified death. Desperate to solve the mystery she finds a young man, expert in chess, and convinces him to play the game backwards and see where that leads them. The whole film is actually nothing more than an Agatha Christian whodunit that lacks surprise since we can (or at least I could) guess from the beginning who the murderer is. Apart from that, it looks nice and that's especially because of Kate Beckinsale's performance who once more brings an amazingly fresh character to life. Also watch out for Peter Wingfield (Methos from the TV series Highlander!!!) that becomes the laughing stock of everyone as he plays the macho man who ends up kicked around by women. Overall, don't expect to see the movie of a lifetime but it's no doubt interesting. And Kate Beckinsale and John Wood are filling their shoes satisfactorily enough.

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6 out of 12 people found the following comment useful :-
Three Overlain Pretty Things, 31. Dezember 2005
Author: tedg (tedg@FilmsFolded.com) von Virginia Beach

No question in my mind, there's no question that the vitality of film these days is in the hands of Spanish storytelling: layered narrative, magical deviations from causality, sex as physics. The beauty of woman and places deeply rooted to the elegance of understanding.

There are narrative notions and cinematic qualities being nurtured in this broad community that are worth nurturing by us through appreciation. Here's a project that when you sum it all up is a dreadful movie, but it knows what it is about in terms of some intelligent ideas. It just didn't have the talent to match those ideas.

Here's the deep spine which is attempted: Pérez-Reverte writes mystery stories in a magical realism tradition. His device is usually to play between the happening of a thing and the representation of that happening in a book or painting. The idea is to fold his representation (his book) into the story, reaping all sorts of storytelling advantages.

Once these layers are established, he can jump in and out of various levels, and so can we as readers and some of the main characters as they develop insight. Layers are narrative layers, story threads, time, and almost always abstraction layers in terms of creating events and creating laws behind those events.

But the books themselves have problems. The ideas in their construction are a whole lot more engaging than the books themselves. The actual skill at storytelling just isn't masterful enough to control, channel and exploit these conceptual tides that have been unleashed.

One of his books was made into a film by a true master filmmaker, Polanski, and starred someone who knows that rare trick of layered or folded acting, where you inhabit more than one layer at a time. You had to work at it, but "Ninth Gate" really is as good as its ideas, and the ideas are in that film are both richer and crisper than in the source book.

And now we have this film of another of Pérez-Reverte's works. A simpler book in key ways.

One change it makes is to relocate the story to Barcelona and Gaudi's architecture. He is our most "folded" architect, and that change shows some real understanding of what is at stake. The filmmaker here is the guy who best exploited the environmental fabric of New Orleans to transform a simple story into a pretty interesting film in "The Big Easy."

For some reason, he is unable to do the same here. I think he could have if he had more time to get into the rhythm of the place, which is less hedonistic than New Orleans but more achingly romantic; more poundingly African under a sunny, slightly mechanical nonchalance. The project could have used this, and it was in his power, but it eludes us this time.

And that lack of control extends to more mundane production elements. The balance between realism and theatrical stereotypes/architypes was lost, probably unachievable with this cast.

The cast centers on Kate Beckinsale as our surrogate detective, who really is alluring, and in precisely the way the project demands: physically, she is made here as befitting of the place: sloppy, casual (unshaven pits), boyish face, innocent questioner on the surface -- deeply sexual and possibly powerful underneath. But she couldn't deliver that last part, the power part. Indeed, any emotion is amateurish. I haven't really paid much attention to her later work. I think it about the same.

So. What we have is a parcel of really great ideas. Important, central ones if you love movies and seriously use them in building a life and life awareness. These are all here, but mostly implicit. You have to almost ignore the movie to see them.

But along the way, you get a pretty girl, the most intriguing city on the planet, and a painting that is worthy of its role.

Ted's Evaluation -- 2 of 3: Has some interesting elements.

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