Now I know there is a biblical story called Balthazar's ass, I don't know how it goes and I don't feel very informed after this movie. Is this some joke about how everyone around the donkey displays "Ass-like behavior" and the poor creature has to suffer through their stupidity?
Firstly the girl, what exactly is her problem? I really find it hard to believe someone can be so indecisive and so bad and making choices. I saw a relationship between her and Geralds happening the moment they were introduced, and I kept rolling my eyes every time they had moments of intimacy, I don't think its unreasonable to have a character who has to deal with an overbearing, prideful father to want to rebel and end up with another "rebellious" character but dear god the characters felt so unrealistic and unbelievable. He burns donkey tails and causes car crashes, forever eliminating an hints of subtlety and redeemablity about his character. It felt a little too over the top, and made the girl seems like an idiot. Quite honestly I'm not sure she ever even liked the dam donkey, everyone acts like she does, but I don't really see any convincing proof for that. Also this might be a stupid objection I have but she doesn't move her hands like a normal person while walking.
The father also felt unbelievable and unrealistic, someone who walks out of court rooms because he thought he was insulted also thought a school of kids apparently. However Gerlad dumb behavior would make a little more sense if this is the sort of push over that thought them. The one character I did like was her mother, she wasn't as prominent as first, but the few moments she did turn up showed actually realistic and sensible[ in context of the story] ways a character who had to suffer life with these caricatures would act. She showed real conflict, she seemed to have real problems and you could see the difficulty she had dealing with her problems, which was so refreshing in comparison to the rest of the characters. The drunk... I wonder if his anti-police speech and guillotine riddled dreams allude to a military past , but he didn't come across as consistent. I have a hard time believing he did not try to kill that idiot Gerald at least thrice. Dear god how do people tolerate that ass[Gerald not the donkey]? The donkey itself, well it seems... Genuinely donkey like until it freaks out on seeing the drunk at the circus. Firstly, I'm pretty sure that counting trick only worked on horses, secondly the donkey runs away from someone who over works it and is quite ineffective at harming it, but has no problem with some who actually hits it and sets its tail on fire?
The character of the uncle actually did have a interesting take on honor, wealth[ which the girl would reflect on later{ineffectively without explaining it to the audience}] he seemed to the the dispenser of wisdom you see in mythology, made me wonder if all these characters are supposed to be renditions of over the top characters you see in mythology.
Overall I didn't dislike the movie, I just fail to see some of the motives and I am not able to figure out if the story was supposed to represent something. I find it quite hard to think of anything other than the characters. Maybe my opinion will change if I read up on the actual biblical story.
The father also felt unbelievable and unrealistic, someone who walks out of court rooms because he thought he was insulted also thought a school of kids apparently. However Gerlad dumb behavior would make a little more sense if this is the sort of push over that thought them. The one character I did like was her mother, she wasn't as prominent as first, but the few moments she did turn up showed actually realistic and sensible[ in context of the story] ways a character who had to suffer life with these caricatures would act. She showed real conflict, she seemed to have real problems and you could see the difficulty she had dealing with her problems, which was so refreshing in comparison to the rest of the characters. The drunk... I wonder if his anti-police speech and guillotine riddled dreams allude to a military past , but he didn't come across as consistent. I have a hard time believing he did not try to kill that idiot Gerald at least thrice. Dear god how do people tolerate that ass[Gerald not the donkey]? The donkey itself, well it seems... Genuinely donkey like until it freaks out on seeing the drunk at the circus. Firstly, I'm pretty sure that counting trick only worked on horses, secondly the donkey runs away from someone who over works it and is quite ineffective at harming it, but has no problem with some who actually hits it and sets its tail on fire?
The character of the uncle actually did have a interesting take on honor, wealth[ which the girl would reflect on later{ineffectively without explaining it to the audience}] he seemed to the the dispenser of wisdom you see in mythology, made me wonder if all these characters are supposed to be renditions of over the top characters you see in mythology.
Overall I didn't dislike the movie, I just fail to see some of the motives and I am not able to figure out if the story was supposed to represent something. I find it quite hard to think of anything other than the characters. Maybe my opinion will change if I read up on the actual biblical story.
