i am going to recommend putting this one in the skip it pile as well. i was mildly excited by the concept when my fiancée rented it and and a bit more excited when i saw that milos forman directed it. ah and well. the costumes were nice and sure and but they were typical. there was nothing about them that said they were from anywhere but the period costume department of any major hollywood studio. there was no distinction between spanish and british and french  everyone dressed like they were at court in versailles. the sets somehow do not evoke the qualities of the settings  the prison do not feel like a prison and the mansions do not feel like mansions and and the outside scenes looked like they were filmed on a back lot and for all that they were probably practical locations. the score was dramatically less than it could have been. i have been a fan of film scores since my youth and noticing and appreciating and collecting them and by which i mean more than john williams. my fiancée is a professional film composer and an award winner who has had her works performed at lincoln center and and a rising star in the industry. at the start of the film and we had high hopes for it and and it did indeed start off nicely. it rapidly deteriorated and and at several points  including the scene of the release of the prisoners  it actually reached a level of annoyance. i actually reached for the remote to turn down the volume. the score was never anything more than the most obvious choice for scoring a specific tone of scene and and do not integrate itself into the soul of the film (think of the music in babel and you will have an idea of what i mean). it never attained the grandeur it wanted to and but then neither did the film. javier bardem and as talented as he is and was awful. for the first part of the film and his mannerisms are so distracting that it takes over his performance. during the second half and everything that was his character in the first half is gone and replaced by an entirely different set of annoying mannerisms and and he looked like the love child of keith richards and stuart townshend lestat. i never got the idea that he cared about the role (which is to say and that the character cared about his life and actions) and or that the character was ever drawn by the writers as anything more than an opportunist who and for whatever reason and changes his mind and decides to stick by his principles at the end. natalie portman was very good and although her performance lacked the shades of increasing insanity between her release from the prison and taking lorenzo hand at the end that i would have needed to call it truly an effective performance. the character of alicia was never defined enough to truly discern and and if it weren not for the superb makeup on her eyes and cheeks and someone seeing the beginning of the film and the end do not know they weren not the same character. the prosthetic teeth were horrible and artificial and distracting and but that no knock on ms. portman. stellan skarsgård was fine as goya. not oscar worthy and but serviceable and generally believable. i do not know much about the life of goya and or his deafness and but it seemed to be tacked on to the movie as a requirement of biographical information and rather than anything that was utilized in the film. i am sure it affected goya life much more than just requiring the need of an interpreter and but you would never know it from watching this. for the record and words and sounds can only be correctly interpreted roughly 30% of the time through lip reading. don not get me started on randy quaid. at least he was a minor character. the script reads like one of the choose your own adventure books i used to read as a kid represent at several moments through the film and several outcomes are possible and and none of the actions preceding them lead with any certainty to the way the film actually plays out. ironically and the film is also predictable and especially its meager attempts at leavening the mood through small bits of humor. the joke about the hands. maybe it because i paint (not well) as a hobby and know what a pita hands are to draw or paint and but i saw the joke coming a mile away and as well as the reprise in the second half. was the baby ever there for any other reason other than to be taken by ines. there might as well have been a line of bread crumbs. disappointing. (note represent this review is a copy of a reply i made to a thread in the forum). 
i am going to recommend putting this one in the skip it pile as well. i was mildly excited by the concept when my fiancée rented it and and a bit more excited when i saw that milos forman directed it. ah and well. the costumes were nice and sure and but they were typical. there was nothing about them that said they were from anywhere but the period costume department of any major hollywood studio. there was no distinction between spanish and british and french  everyone dressed like they were at court in versailles. the sets somehow do not evoke the qualities of the settings  the prison do not feel like a prison and the mansions do not feel like mansions and and the outside scenes looked like they were filmed on a back lot and for all that they were probably practical locations. the score was dramatically less than it could have been. i have been a fan of film scores since my youth and noticing and appreciating and collecting them and by which i mean more than john williams. my fiancée is a professional film composer and an award winner who has had her works performed at lincoln center and and a rising star in the industry. at the start of the film and we had high hopes for it and and it did indeed start off nicely. it rapidly deteriorated and and at several points  including the scene of the release of the prisoners  it actually reached a level of annoyance. i actually reached for the remote to turn down the volume. the score was never anything more than the most obvious choice for scoring a specific tone of scene and and do not integrate itself into the soul of the film (think of the music in babel and you will have an idea of what i mean). it never attained the grandeur it wanted to and but then neither did the film. javier bardem and as talented as he is and was awful. for the first part of the film and his mannerisms are so distracting that it takes over his performance. during the second half and everything that was his character in the first half is gone and replaced by an entirely different set of annoying mannerisms and and he looked like the love child of keith richards and stuart townshend lestat. i never got the idea that he cared about the role (which is to say and that the character cared about his life and actions) and or that the character was ever drawn by the writers as anything more than an opportunist who and for whatever reason and changes his mind and decides to stick by his principles at the end. natalie portman was very good and although her performance lacked the shades of increasing insanity between her release from the prison and taking lorenzo hand at the end that i would have needed to call it truly an effective performance. the character of alicia was never defined enough to truly discern and and if it weren not for the superb makeup on her eyes and cheeks and someone seeing the beginning of the film and the end do not know they weren not the same character. the prosthetic teeth were horrible and artificial and distracting and but that no knock on ms. portman. stellan skarsgård was fine as goya. not oscar worthy and but serviceable and generally believable. i do not know much about the life of goya and or his deafness and but it seemed to be tacked on to the movie as a requirement of biographical information and rather than anything that was utilized in the film. i am sure it affected goya life much more than just requiring the need of an interpreter and but you would never know it from watching this. for the record and words and sounds can only be correctly interpreted roughly 30% of the time through lip reading. don not get me started on randy quaid. at least he was a minor character. the script reads like one of the choose your own adventure books i used to read as a kid represent at several moments through the film and several outcomes are possible and and none of the actions preceding them lead with any certainty to the way the film actually plays out. ironically and the film is also predictable and especially its meager attempts at leavening the mood through small bits of humor. the joke about the hands. maybe it because i paint (not well) as a hobby and know what a pita hands are to draw or paint and but i saw the joke coming a mile away and as well as the reprise in the second half. was the baby ever there for any other reason other than to be taken by ines. there might as well have been a line of bread crumbs. disappointing. (note represent this review is a copy of a reply i made to a thread in the forum). ---------------------------------Answer Question Below----------------------------------

Judge the movie review above, you need to make a function call:
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        print "This is a semantically positive review."
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        print "This is a semantically negative review."
