Verdict:
Mr. Fogg is an ***hole. The book just makes him appear punctual rather than a caricature of fussy and smug British man, the kind you would come across in American cartoons.
This film is an audio-visual spectacle. The story takes you across the globe, and the filmmakers fully embrace this premise, showing off a variety of places, people and events associated with a particular location. From the lush baroque posh halls of Britain to the Indian jungle to Japan, you accompany Mr. Fogg like you’re on a lavish vacation from the comfort of your couch. The shots emphasize perspective, featuring arches and colonnades.
The camera has a very wide angle, giving an almost constant fisheye lens effect, which makes the whole affair dreamy and was perhaps meant to simulates the roundness of the globe. Either way, the film has a fairly peculiar visual style as a result of it. The music is loud and bombastic, and of course, each country visited offers something different. The combination of a wide angle lens, racing comedic music and foreign visuals creates an atmosphere reminiscent of a circus or a carnival.
As you might expect, this film is built like a video vacation. You’d expect much of the movie to be filmed on a set or in the English countryside, but the production was actually shot in various countries, including Thailand and Mexico. Clearly an effort was made to bring real costumes and people of various races and languages to the screen.
However, this is also the main weakness of this film. It is just a travel show, or rather a conglomeration of several travel shows. The main characters move from one situation to the other, something stereotypical happens and then they move on. The story is an afterthought, only serving to set up the next display. There is a 5 or 10 minute matador show, which somehow manages to get boring. Imagine watching a camera view of bullfighting (no animas hurt) from the stands…on a small screen.
As for the two main characters, once established, they do not offer much new. They do crazy stuff alright and stuff happens to them, but there is no exposure or growth of character.
Passepartout is played by Mexican Charlie Chaplin-like fellow by the name of Mario Moreno, who without a doubt, knows his stuff, but whose acting seems to suffer, possibly due to his struggle with the English language.
This film is a rich tapestry of the charming and the tedious, the visually impressive and the narratively shallow. Some acting is good and some average. There are good stunts and silly looking ones. t’s a warm, feel-good adventure at times, but the disjointed, meandering structure makes it difficult to stay engaged. I question its Academy Award. Must have been a slow year…