At Eternity's Gate (2018)

Written by r96sk on October 20, 2023

Not one for me.

I will say that Willem Dafoe is terrific, undoubtedly. His performance in 'At Eternity's Gate' was honestly the only part of this 2018 release that kept my interest piqued. The support cast don't do anything wrong but don't really illuminate the film for me either. It has its heart in the right place, but as a film I didn't enjoy it.

The main thing that bothered me was the camera work all around, just absolutely needless shaky cam that adds zero to what's going on onscreen - it even distracts from the main event, for me at least. It is noted that, away from that, visibly the film does look neat.

I am admittedly not into art ('twas my least favourite subject at school, in fact), though even so I expected more from this. I am happy for Dafoe that this was positively received as his showing merits high praise, but it won't be one I'll be revisiting any time soon personally.