After seeing trailers and previews, Winter’s Tale looked like the typical star-crossed lovers chick flick type film. After seeing it though, I came to find that although it may be a beautiful love story, it goes far beyond the normal chick flick in complicated and twisting plot.
Based on the book of the same title by Mark Helprin, Winter’s Tale is a movie about love, destiny, life, miracles, and the ultimate battle between good and evil.
Peter Lake (Colin Farrell) is an orphaned crook in New York in 1915. He made the mistake of trusting one of the best crooks, Pearly Soames (Russell Crowe). Pearly believes Peter may not be as evil as he once thought and so he, being a demon, must get rid of Peter before he performs his one miracle that all good humans get.
On his way out of town to escape Pearly, Peter decides to rob one last house that he deems to be empty, however he is wrong. Inside is a beautiful 21 year old red-haired girl name Beverly Penn (Jessica Brown Findley), who is dying of consumption. Peter and Beverly fall in love at first sight.
It seems that it would be destiny for Peter to use his miracle to save Beverly. To some surprise though, Beverly does die after losing her virginity to Peter. He tries many things to save her, but he ultimately fails, thus giving himself up to Pearly.
Peter is then killed and dumped into the river by Pearly, or so Pearly thinks. Peter crawls out of the river he was dumped into in New York, but the year is 2014 and his appearance not a bit altered. He cannot remember anything and all he keeps seeing a red haired girl that he keeps drawing.
As his memory starts to return, he meets a young red-haired girl named Abby who is dying of cancer. It then clicks that he was never meant to save Beverly, but to save Abby. In the end good does triumph over evil and Peter saves Abby. He is then able to join Beverly as a star in Heaven.
The plot of the film is a very complicated way of trying to convey that no one life is more important than another. Although we can hope and pray to save the ones we love, not everyone can be saved. We all have our own destiny and we have to trust that the world has it all figured out for us. The world can be full of miracles, and this film just showcases one miracle that occurred across time to save one little girl from dying too young.
This movie is one to watch if you have yet to see it. Although it may take your full attention to follow the plot, it gives a greater meaning to love and miracles. It is like watching an old novel come to life in front of your eyes. Even though some of the lot is spoiled in this article, it pays to watch everything come together so perfectly through the writing and execution of the film.
Photo via Creative Commons
