Tom Jones (1963)

Sorry, this movie sucks

I like movies that are aware of what they are selling... without [any] greater aspirations than to make people laugh and that's it.

This movie was so-so. It had it's moments, but wasn't the greatest.

Actress is magnificent and exudes a hypnotic screen presence in this affecting drama.

It's 18th century England. Squire Allworthy returns to his estate after months away in London. He finds a baby in his bed. It is declared to be from his servant Jenny Jones. He decides to send her away and raise the baby with his sister Bridget as part of the family. The baby grows up to be the charming Tom Jones (Albert Finney). He and Sophie Western (Susannah York) falls in love but her family rejects him. They prefer she marries Bridget's son Blifil (David Warner). Squire Allworthy provides some inheritance for Tom to seek his own fortune. Due to misfortunes and family intrigue, Tom struggles in the world. Sophie runs away from Blifil to search for Tom.This is a adaptation of an 18th century novel. It takes the material with some interesting modern aspects. It is bodied. It is inherently a comedy although it's not out loud funny. It has some quirks. It's more of a drama. Finney makes this compelling. It's a critic and academy favorite.

Mostly the reviews on IMDb can be relied on, but sometimes they just make no sense. Over upwards of a decade and many hundreds of visits I can recall no starker illustration than the truly unbelievable 6.8 given to Tom Jones. It is, simply, a masterpiece.A brilliant story at the heart of it, of course, but brought to life with fantastic, innovative direction, including affectionate nods to the silents, extraordinary action sequences, unsurpassed breaches of the fourth wall ("Did you see her take it?"), uncommon acknowledgements of some of the grimmer realities of the era, and tour de force performances from the entire cast (who clearly relished every minute), centred of course on the sublime Albert Finney - one of the greats, never better - and the heart-stoppingly gorgeous Susannah York. Tom Jones is one of the ultimate explorations and illustrations of the full potential of the medium: movies don't get better than this. Anyone who contributed to that risible score should hang their head in shame. Anyone else, watch Tom Jones. Then watch it again. And again.

People were excited about Tom Jones in 1963. I read in an archived paper that it was considered the next Citizen Kane. Somehow someway that translated to 4 Oscars, including Best Picture, where it's now considered the weakest winner outside of Crash since the 50s. Probably even weaker than Driving Miss Daisy. It's a bizarre blend of period costume drama and screwball comedy, and neither parts work. It's really all over the place, and I'll admit to not being able to follow the story besides the broad strokes. There's little to find engaging. It's so unbelievably rough around the edges, so horribly shot and overlaboured in the editing. No, those scenes don't need speeding up. That doesn't make it funny. That makes it cheap. Maybe it was an innovator at the time, but it innovated the worst ideas. Albert Finney does have charm, but the film savours none of it. The acting from the ensemble spare a few is solid, but the filmmaking is too weak for them to steal the show. I'll give it credit that the score is Oscar- worthy and is the only thing that efficiently sets the tone. Poor show on Richardson and the Academy's behalf.5/10

Based on Henry Fielding's classic, Tony Richardson's 'Tom Jones' has received quite a lot of acclaim and is still highly praised after almost half a century. It's quite nicely shot with the exception of the cinematography which was flat. The English location is pleasing to look at and the performances are very good. Albert Finney fits Tom Jones like a puzzle. The costumes are great and the director manages to capture the essence of the time period.However, I found the movie to be incredibly boring. I really tried to enjoy it. The beginning is very rushed and perhaps after about half an hour it moves at a snail's pace. The humour in the dialogues works to an extent, not enough to save this from boring me.There's also a disturbing hunting scene. I don't mind when a movie shows disturbing elements (as long as its relevant to the story) and hunting was a big game during that time period but it just seemed pointless to really kill a deer over it.Anyway, 'Tom Jones' just didn't work for me. Other than Finney's terrific performance and some nice dialogues, it didn't offer much.