Bluebeard

Bluebeard is based on a very charming idea. Two young girls are playing in an attic when one of them starts to read the story of Bluebeard to the other, and we are presented with a re-enactment of the story they read (a folk tale in which a young girl marries a misunderstood rich-but-ugly man).

At first the execution seems good. The young girls in the meta-story are charming and very cute together, and the fairy tale portion is done pretty well. However, before it really gets a chance to go anywhere, the story begins to take odd turns. Poorly placed breaks to the meta-story to reveal random details of their school and home life, or discourses on marriage and homosexuality, while charming, don't seem to really fit. And the folk tale takes an odd turn from somewhat realistic to fairy tale logic. One or the other would be fine, but the shift in tone is confusing.

In addition, the cinematography becomes increasingly cheesy as the film progresses, not least due to a sequence of staircase ascent/descent shots which are done by repeating a single shot of the actor walking past a camera 4 times in a row.

*** SPOILER ALERT ***

The last five minutes really kills it for me, though. At the climactic moment of the fairy tale, one of the meta-girls scares the other and she falls to her death, while the French cavalry show up in a complete deus ex machina moment and save the heroine from her suddenly murderous husband. The film ends with a 20 second shot of her staring at the camera stroking his bloody severed head on a platter. Basically it's a total cop-out in both stories, and while it seems like it's supposed to be climactic, it falls completely flat.

Not a total loss, since the first half or so is pretty nice, but pretty deeply flawed as well.