“Gad” is currently the most frequently watched English-language film by platform users from all over the world. During the premiere week, viewers spent 40,200,000 hours watching this picture, and considering that the whole thing lasts two hours and 16 minutes, this translates into 17.7 million views. The production was included in the list of the 10 most frequently played titles in 90 countries, including: in the USA, Canada, Austria, Great Britain, Lithuania and Denmark it even took first place.
A young real estate agent is brutally murdered in the house she was supposed to show to potential buyers. Her body is found by her partner and boss (played by Justin Timberlake), who is shaken by the incident, and the case is investigated by detective Tom Nichols (here the excellent Benicio del Toro). It seems that solving the murder will be easy, but the more Tom analyzes the circumstances of the crime, the more complicated things become. What’s worse, the case – as the official synopsis of the film says – “leads him to discover the illusion of his own life.”
“Gad” is the most popular Netflix film. The director forgot that it was not a music video
It really takes a lot to exhaust my patience when I watch crime and thriller movies. Meanwhile, the atmospheric “Gad” with Benicio del Torro, Alicia Silverstone and Justin Timberlake didn’t even upset or irritate me, it just tired me so much that it put me to sleep. During the second attempt, I felt an irresistible temptation to watch the film at a slight speed. I can honestly say that the atmosphere of tension and paranoid uncertainty is very successfully created, but I am not sure whether it turned out in a way that was consistent with the creators’ assumptions. Because theoretically it was supposed to be ambitious and sharp, but it is so unbearably long-winded that it takes a lot of perseverance to finish the screening.
“Gad” is a film that is even reliably acted, with a really good cast, a not too cliched main theme and a very refined visual appearance. But all these pluses and even the most eloquent looks from Benicio del Toro do not save the whole, which is disappointingly tedious and blurry. Worse still, it’s not even bad enough to be considered so bad it’s good. It rather looks like the result of a creative frenzy of mannerisms in the poetic tendencies of a Polish film student who decided to make a groundbreakingly artistic and in-depth psychological drama about a tough guy acting in accordance with his conscience despite his social loyalty. The effect is rather forgettable.
Do you know that discomfort when you theoretically start eating something delicious, but the portion is, for example, too large, or the dish is too salty or spicy, and each subsequent bite makes your mouth slowly go numb, then simply hurts, and finally you feel nauseous? This is what happens when you watch “Gad”. The director, cinematographer and editor clearly exaggerated the layer of visual narrative, which in the case of this film is basically decisive for its pace. The next, very beautifully planned frames and shots seem to impress at first with their level of thought, but the longer they last, the more tiring they become. And the jerky and sharp music – supposedly quiet – at some point simply begins to irritate and disturbs rather than helps in building the mood.
“Gad” is not a film that cannot be watched. But you have to try
Although I can’t say that it was the longest two hours of my life, because “The Invisible War” by Patryk Vega will be really hard to beat in this respect, but after the first 35 minutes I had the impression that I was watching “Gad” for those two hours, and then It was with an unpleasant shudder that I discovered that I wasn’t even halfway through the story yet. And I swear, I’m not complaining for the sake of complaining, but because I’m really sorry that it turned out to be such an indigestible mess. Let me resort to a culinary metaphor: I have the feeling that the director received 50 kg of Wagyu beef from the cast, which in Polish conditions costs from PLN 700 to PLN 1,200 per kilogram of entrecote or tenderloin, and decided to use this extremely luxurious raw material to make sausages not roasted in oil in soggy breading that falls off. It doesn’t traumatize you, but you want to forget such a culinary experience. Because it is neither a decent hot dog that can be absolutely finger-licking good, nor a dish that does justice to the nobility of its ingredients.
“Gad” is also a fascinating case of a film whose level of strangeness – long and artistic shots and frames, the game of glances between tough guys and psychedelic music in the background – discouraged film critics more than the audience. This is much more favorable to this production, as opposed to 42%. positive reviews from reviewers on Rotten Tomatoes, gave the film 77 percent Well, I admit, I’ve seen much worse movies. If it weren’t so irritatingly tiring and boring, this one would be just average – but it’s really hard to talk about the pleasure of watching it.
Ratings for the movie ‘Gad’ Rotten Tomatoes / Transcript from 04/10/23
I appreciate, however, that Justin Timberlake has a beautifully puffy face and looks like a guy who supposedly basks in luxury, but has a problem with alcohol abuse and is somehow sad. Alicia Silverstone had the opportunity to show for the first time in a long time that she can really act, and Benicio del Toro is in a class of his own. As I conclude from the end credits, he probably even tried to save the script, because he was listed as one of its co-authors. In an interview conducted during the shooting, he explained that they tried very hard to find a way to make the plot interesting and at the same time as realistic as possible, and they were looking for an appropriate way of conducting the narrative to implement these assumptions. What can I say, I think they went a bit overboard with this styling.
But I guess this shouldn’t surprise me, since director Grant Singer has previously been involved in shooting music videos (he works a lot with The Weeknd and made for him, for example, the clip for “Starboy”, “Call Out My Name”, “Tell Your Friends”) and commercials , and this is his full-length debut. If someone is 38 years old, makes a debut and immediately has a chance to make a living by shooting an ambitious plot about an internally conflicted detective, the risk of overusing means of expression that work well in short forms is indeed high. And Singer emphasizes in interviews that the plot was inspired by the American fascination with violence and the true crime genre, and he wanted to make a film that “explores the human capacity for evil.” Nevertheless, del Toro praised him for his courage, willingness to test new solutions and great flexibility in working and implementing the actors’ ideas – these are all very good features, so there is a good chance that his next feature-length film will be less tiring. It’s always better to develop and gain experience than to struggle with the burden of a brilliant debut. Meanwhile, with a clear conscience, I recommend watching our Polish “Quack” on Netflix.
Source: Gazeta
Bruce is a talented author and journalist with a passion for entertainment . He currently works as a writer at the 247 News Agency, where he has established himself as a respected voice in the industry.
