The Yellow Wallpaper

source: The Yellow Wallpaper

I read the short story and I've seen a couple of adaptations of The Yellow Wallpaper. I was so delighted to see that this was playing on Prime video. It has beautiful cinematography and the opening scene is quite shocking and draws you in, but, unfortunately, the acting in this adaptation is stilted. The lead actress sounds like she's reading her lines and so do the other actors and for the life of me I cannot determine whether or not it was a deliberate portrayal through the direction to emphasize the stilted stifling nature of their lives or none of these people know how to say their lives naturally. But I found it distracting to me and she just wasn't up to the task to convey the material and give it the mystery and gravitist I've seen in other excellent adaptations. Now I know why the rating is so low.

I taught The Yellow Wallpaper in Soc. 101, and this is not a good representation of the work. The biggest flaw is pacing. The original short story is only 24 pages long. Adapting that to a 100 minute film is not a good idea, and the result is a slow, plodding, boring waste of time. This would have been better as part of an anthology or tv show than a feature length film. The acting and production are not great either. I did not feel immersed into the era and the wooden performances, especially through the first two acts kept me from connecting to any of the characters. I did not like any of them, nor did I want to even know them. Do yourself a favor and spend a couple bucks buying Gilman's work on Amazon and reading the story. It is much better written and more fulfilling.

I wanted to watch this movie since the plot looked very interesting, but the acting was so awful!!! I do care about watching only movies with the popular A list actors/actresses, but I mean come on, this woman was not trying at all!! It's as if she was reading from a teleprompter! I am disappointed about the horrible acting because I believe this movie could be great. The film is generally shot well with nice scenery, and beautiful photography, and a sad atmosphere which goes along with the plot. It's about a woman named Jane who is miserable in her marriage. Jane also seems to be going through postpartum depression. But the film makes you also wonder, if it is just the summer home that is causing her depression. Possibly both. She seems to already be miserable because on the ride to the summer home, her baby cries on the ride there and her husband asks her to do something about it. It seems her husband does not care about his wife's mental health at all, but instead just ignores it and only cares about himself. Jane says in the film that she feels she is being ungrateful. This is something I feel many people can relate to. Sometimes in life you become sad or depressed, even though you have everything going for you, which then makes you feel guilty because you have no real reason to be sad. This shows that it is a real sickness and a chemical imbalance that shouldn't just be ignored, sadly back then it probably was oftentimes ignored. It seemed Janes husband dictated her whole entire day as well. Jane wakes up in the morning and he wants to hear exactly what she will do during the day, now there is nothing wrong with that but it seems that he wants to tell her what she can and can't do, which he does. He tells the maid that he does not want her doing more than an hour of chores. This film does go over very important topics, not only showing how women were very controlled back then, but how more research needs to be done on womens health in general. This woman clearly had severe postpartum depression and no one seemed to care. And this still holds true today, there is not enough research being done on womens health and women still are controlled in some ways. For example, abortion being banned in certain states. I do not think this film deserves higher than a 4 because the acting was so awful and this honestly made it unbearable to watch. The film dragged on and could have been summed up in a half hour but I get that they wanted it to be a movie.

This film is beautiful to watch. It is very moving and beautifully directed. The settings are superb! And the period costumes are perfect. I highly recommend this film!

The acting was something you'd see in a community theater. The pace is much slower than it needs to be. And it's much too long to be effective. That's why this was a short story. There's just not enough story there for a movie this long. You know a film is bad when a third of the way through you want to see the protagonist carted off to an institution just so the movie will mercifully end already. And, BTW, what's with throwing the baby out of the carriage? It's obviously in her mind, right, but then the husband stops the carriage to go back and retrieve it. It makes you think it actually happened. The next scene the baby is fine. Just strange.

A stark and chilling account of mental illness that portrays the ways in which women of the 19th century were dismissed as hysterical when enduring postpartum depression. Staying true to the original story penned by Charlotte Perkins Gilman in 1890, the film features a riveting performance by lead actor, Alexandra Loreth (in her feature film debut), with stunning visual storytelling by director, Kevin Pontuti. A mood and atmosphere that lingers long after the credits have stopped rolling.

I really enjoyed this if it's possible to enjoy a truly bleak story. I think that if you are familiar with the original short story by Charlotte Perkins Gilman then it's quite faithful and you'll be pleased. Otherwise, probably not. There are no special effects, no jump scares and it flows more like a play than a film.

If it's a horror movie I would classify it as a documentary of sickness happened in old times. Seeing bunch of mice being killed maybe the most scary to me. Way too long and no peak of this product.

Not sure what I expected from a gothic feminist horror film. Is A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night or Suspiria (both versions) also feminist horror? The Yellow Wallpaper intrigued me, and after I finished, I read the original text on which it's based. Both are great, but for different reasons. The film abides by the emotion and spirit of the novella but takes on modern interpretations. I can't say what because it might give parts away. The foreboding house and creepiness of the situation got under my skin, and I couldn't help but watch the ending in horror. Or maybe it was the tense soundtrack. I wished some scenes were shorter, but I think that of every movie I've watched (including Dune) in the last year, chalking that up to Covid isolation. But, oh hell, I think I'll watch it again with my wife.