Tulip Fever (2017)

Judy Dench, Christoph Waltz, Dane Dehaan, Zach Galifianakis, Cara Delevingne, Jack O'Connell, and Matthew Morrison. One would think a film with this cast would be headed towards Oscars. A period piece about a love scandal and flowers. It should be juicy and lovely and barely restrained. It many was Tulip Fever is all those things, well except Oscar bound. It's also just disjointed, messy, and lacking in the passion it needs to truly bloom.

The cast is wonderful and rather seductive as they fill up their gorgeously decorated sets in their fabulous costumes. But the film keeps jumping around, erratically put together so nothing feels grounded. Motivations come and go without explanation. Characters are drawn rather thinly. Relationships feel stilted and lack chemistry. I never felt I got a sense of what the characters were feeling or what I was to feel about that. Tom Stoppard's pen can't save this story from feeling like it just never quite comes together.

In all its beautiful mess, Tulip Fever never finds its heart and soul, never convinces us of the beauty it is celebrating. It is an honest try but wilts all too fast.

Tulip Fever
Starring: Judy Dench, Christoph Waltz, Dane Dehaan, Zach Galifianakis, Cara Delevingne, Jack O'Connell, and Matthew Morrison
Director: Justin Chadwick
Writer: Tom Stoppard