Tulip Fever (2017)
Genre: Drama
Director: Justin Chadwick
Starring: Alicia Vikander, Dane DeHaan, Christoph Waltz, Holliday Grainger, Matthew Morrison, Judi Dench, Tom Hollander, Cara Delevigne
Duration: 105 minutes
Class: 15
KRS Releasing Ltd

Deborah Moggach’s 1999 novel Tulip Wars got the big screen adaptation by British actor and director Justin Chadwick (Bleak House).

Filmed in the summer of 2014, the period drama was delayed numerous times before finally being released in the US in September 2017 and only made it to British screens last month.

The plot is set against the backdrop of the 17th-century ‘Tulip Wars’, a period in the Dutch Golden Age during which contract prices for some bulbs of the recently-introduced flower reached extraordinarily high levels and then dramatically collapsed in February 1637.

An orphaned girl (Alicia Vikander) is forcibly married to a rich and powerful merchant (Christoph Waltz). After her husband commissions a portrait, she begins a passionate affair with the painter (Dane DeHaan), a struggling young artist.

Seeking to escape the merchant’s ever-reaching grasp, the lovers risk everything and enter the frenzied tulip bulb market, with the hope that the right bulb will make a fortune and buy their freedom.

Despite starring Hollywood A-listers, the film was panned by critics.

Jordan Hoffman of The Guardian wrote: “Alicia Vikander, Christoph Waltz and Judi Dench all find themselves lost in a beleaguered adaptation of a 17th-century potboiler that gradually turns into a far-fetched soap opera.”

Sheri Linden of The Hollywood Reporter said: “It arrives not as a lusty tale in full bloom but as a tastefully arranged still life, in search of an animating spark.”

And Peter Travers of Rolling Stone commented: “Forget Fever – this floral-scented fiasco is so lifeless you can barely feel a pulse.”

The critics’ consenus on Rotten Tomatoes sums it all up: “Tulip Fever is a lush, handsomely mounted period piece undone by uninspired dialogue and excessive plotting.”

The film, which cost €25 million to produce, also bombed at the box office as it only grossed €8 million worldwide.

Ratings
IMDB: 6.2
Rotten Tomatoes: 10%
Empire: N/A

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