A New York Winter's Tale

Akiva Goldsman, the Oscar-winning screenwriter of A Beautiful Mind, makes an ambitious directorial debut with a romantic fantasy injected with heavy doses of magical realism. Even leading man Colin Farrell looks a little dizzied by a plot that features the star as Peter Lake, a petty thief who falls in love with an ailing heiress (Downton Abbey's Jessica Brown Findlay) in the early 20th century, but is still walking the streets of New York (untouched by the ageing process) a hundred years later. However, the supernatural repercussions of this development are part of a much larger tale of good and evil, in which the lovers are beset by hammy Russell Crowe as a demon with a broad Oirish accent bent on spoiling their happiness for reasons best known to himself. There are gaps in logic and emotional reasoning that become gulf-sized towards the overly grand finale, which involves Jennifer Connelly (who can only play her part like a deer in the headlights). Maybe trying to adapt Mark Helprin's doorstop-sized novel was a step too far for the fledgeling director. The scope of Goldsman's vision is to be admired, but despite so much epic sweep, the story ends up feeling comparatively small and silly.