Legends a great film with poor interpretation

Legends of the Fall --***1/2

There is a difference between a romance novel and romantic literature, just as there is a difference between a "movie" and a "film." But what is Legends of the Fall? It looks like a film, the subject is one worthy of film, the performances are fantastic, the cinematography spectacular and the costumes are on the mark. So where did the director get the idea to present the story as a cheap day-time soap opera? I hate for such potential to be flushed by a director, but flush this director does.

I suppose it's not as noticeable as I make it sound, but when one waits nearly a year for a very promising film's release only to find everything thwarted, even slightly, by the director, it is a great disappointment.

The film is more than worth seeing. There are great performances right across the board. It is wonderful to look at and the story is very interesting.

The story is about three brothers who live with their father in Montana. What happens when the youngest of the boys, Sammy, brings home a beautiful girl? The other two brothers fall in love with her, of course. So what happens and who ends up with her and what will become of Tristin (Brad Pitt) is the rest of the story, but it's really a lot better than I make it sound.

Pitt does a wonderful job with his character but, unfortunately, the director knows it and pins the entire film to the character as if he were scared to have anybody but Pitt in the film. This is too bad, because all the performances are well done. In the story itself there is favoritism, but it would have been nice to not have had any in the way the story was filmed. Anthony Hopkins, as the father, gets equal time, but Julia Ormond, playing opposite Pitt, is the only one who takes up as much film as the lead. It's as if the director was afraid the audience would lose interest if he took the camera off of Pitt for too long.

The film itself is great, a feast for the senses that is wonderful to experience.

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