Tulip Fever is a terrible movie, but also a terribly entertaining one, its laughably loony story bolstered by an excellent cast and first-rate production design (those sets and costumes would win awards in a better film). I will not spoil the climactic bungle, but it’s a you-had-one-job! scene so incredibly protracted that it might leave you yelling at the screen.Īnd it was written by acclaimed playwright Tom Stoppard(!), of all people, from the novel by Deborah Moggach ( The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel). This a is a movie whose plot revolves around Three’s Company misunderstandings (windowsill glimpses of mistaken lovemaking), insane baby-swapping soap opera subterfuge, and sequences of characters getting so drunk that they instantly lose it all. And then there’s housemaid Maria (Holliday Grainger), who has conceived a child with now-missing fish monger lover William (Jack O’Connell), who will be fired should Cornelis find out she’s pregnant. And yet, while Waltz’s snobbish walnut trader is certainly no saint, thanks to the actor’s sensitive portrayal he’s the only character here you might feel something for.īut Sophia simply can’t conceive, despite nightly attempts. The plot proper involves Sophia’s efforts to conceive a child with husband Cornelis (Christoph Waltz), a wealthy businessman who rescued her from the life of an orphan into the life of a sex slave and child breeder. If you’re wondering why they cast Zach Galifianakis in this 1634-set period piece, well, he’s simply there to deliver the you-have-to-see-it-to-believe-it punchline. No matter: the entire underground flower market storyline in Tulip Fever is a big long-running joke, and completely inconsequential to everything else that happens in the movie. Even Cervantes knew that, three decades before the movie takes place (the phrase originated in Don Quixote.) Of course, astute viewers may pick up on one key detail: you don’t want to put all your eggs in one basket. The prices keep going up and up and up, leading to the titular frenzy.ĭeHaan’s artist is playing with funds he doesn’t have to raise enough money to run away with lover Sophia Sandvoort (Alicia Vikander), leading to his ultimate gamble: he’ll invest everything he has into one Big Bulb. He’s describing his investments in a precursor to the modern stock market: the underground Amsterdam Tulip Exchange, where bulbs and plots of flowers are exchanged in a basement pub. “We’ll put all our eggs in one basket!” (Actual line of dialogue.)
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