Finally Dawn

Finally Dawn brings together a wonderful cast, a compelling story, and stunning artistry to create something magical.

Not a terribly profound film, but delivered with real brio.

Finally Dawn is uneven, and at 2 hours and 20 minutes indulgently long, but it is also full of texture, wit and a few done-to-perfection set pieces.

Costanzo wants to tell a story set in the past, but he doesn't spend enough time fine-tuning the particulars that make period pieces feel vital rather than stagey. Additionally, at 140 minutes, the film is self-indulgent in length.

Finally Dawn can be commended as a homage to Italian cinema and its effort to cater to an international stage, but it stumbles on its ability to follow through on its promises, leaving us a mesmerizing world that ultimately rings hollow.

I’m not quite sure how this group of actors came together or how any of the ideas coalesce into something that a) makes sense or b) is meant to make us feel anything. It’s impenetrable with no intellect: a true curio in the worst way.

The bitter aftertaste of dullness remains in its place, an unforgivable sin within the art form Constanzo seems so set on paying tribute to.