Critical Condition: The Name of the Rose

The Name of the Rose | SoHo, 9.30 Monday

☆☆☆☆ “Anyone with a cursory understanding of The Name of the Rose, Umberto Eco’s religious murder mystery (and so much more), probably understands that it’s a fool’s errand to turn it into something visual. If the 1986 movie starring Sean Connery made this clear, a new miniseries confirms it beyond a doubt.” — The Hollywood Reporter.

☆☆☆☆ “Where the adaptation follows the original text, it does so generally well, finding the salient points in pages of discussions. The sensational interpolations — the Game of Thrones stuff — are less successful … And while [John] Turturro’s performance is a model of intelligent equanimity, other actors push their parts to the edge of the parapet and sometimes over.” — Los Angeles Times.

☆☆☆☆ “What is going on with us, that in an era of ‘peak TV’  when there is Vatican-level moolah getting thrown at television and unprecedented numbers and varieties of platform, what we do is apparently produce retread after retread, and specifically pandering Frankenstein’s monster retreads that fly in the faces of their source texts for no reason having to do with commentary on those texts?” — Paste.

☆☆☆☆ “The location shooting in Italy, particularly the site of the abbey, is both gorgeous and foreboding. The ending is something right out of Rebecca. All the prayers aren’t enough to save this Rose.” — Boston Herald.