The Name of the Rose

The Name of the Rose

            Have you ever wondered what a medieval style Sherlock Holmes movie would be like? Well in Jean-Jacques Annaud's The Name of the Rose, that is precisely what you get. The Name of the Rose is based on the novel The Name of the Rose by Umberto Eco. Sean Connery plays William of Baskerville, a murder solving monk. William has the same rational approach to solving murders as Holmes does, and they are both generally not well liked by most of their peers. William, along with his trusty side-kick Adso of Melk, Christian Slater, arrive in an Italian abbey where he is charged with investigating the death of monk. Shortly after his arrival more monks wind up dead, some in very gruesome ways, and it is up to William and his apprentice to find out why.

            One of the best points of this movie is Connery brilliant performance as William. Connery’s quick-witted responses and intuition make you want to see how he is going to figure out what is happening. Although most of his reasoning is kept to himself it’s still fun to watch Connery argue with the monks at the monastery. In one scene William is arguing the about laughter and says, “Monkeys do not laugh, laughter is particular to men.” Connery’s rebuttals and intelligence makes him the most interesting character in the movie.

            The setting was also very well done. The abbey portrays the middles ages better than most modern day films. Modern films set in the Middle Ages, they make it look fairly clean and reasonable to live in, when this was not the case. In The Name of the Rose the way the abbey looked honestly made me feel uncomfortable because it looked that disgusting. In the foreground of one scene a pig is being slaughtered and its guts are spilled all over the ground. Annaud made the correct choice in filming this movie in a real monastery. The setting is something that gets over-looked a lot and it is the most important aspect of immersing your audience.

            There were some things that did bother me. The first is that I felt the movie was too long. After the first thirty minutes it fell into a pattern of interesting and boring events that left me almost falling asleep. This made the middle portion of the movie very hard to watch and stay interested in. Also, this made it feel much longer than just a two hour film. What made the movie watchable was the fact that when you felt bored enough to turn it off, your hit with another death or some revelation. Even with Sean Connery’s performance, one man can only carry a movie so far.

Salvatore, played by Ron Perlman, is one of the monks in the abbey and probably the most annoying character. His endless babbling and shrieks made me want to fast forward every scene that included him. I was hoping that no one would walk by when he was screeching and wonder what the hell I was watching. He also was not the most appealing character to look at. He is a hunch back with one tooth, which sticks out and feels like it might stab you in the face.

The final issue I had was how William just seemed to arrive at his conclusions, sometimes with little to no explanation at all. Comparing him again to Sherlock Holmes, what makes Sherlock Holmes such an interesting character is that at the end you always get to see how everything comes together and how he figured it out. In The Name of the Rose it simply lacks this. Connery’s character sits there and nods his head and just states his conclusion many times. Also, at the climax of the movie when William finds the man responsible he just solves the mystery with zero explanation. It leaves us wondering how he figured everything out

The Name of the Rose did some things well, but it was also lacking in many departments. In terms of the cinematography and the lead actor this movie shines, but in most other sections this movie falls utterly short. This is a movie designed for those who love murder mysteries and are willing to sit through a long two hour film. Anyone else who tries to watch this movie will most likely turn it off after the first half hour or so. I often found myself wanting to turn the film off and if you don’t absolutely love murder mysteries you will probably turn the film off.