The Laureate

I have seen wallpaper samples that contain more inherent excitement than this spiritless picture.

None of it lands.

An entertaining melodrama with probably more jazz age decadence than Graves would have recognised.

The performances did not redeem the film... I thought it was pretty-looking, but lacking in dramatic tension.

For all the strain the movie exerts, it never comes close to touching the hem of the writers it purports to depict.

Unfortunately, the film loses its center early on, as Riding and her manipulations drive much of the action and Graves' ambitions get a bit lost in the shuffle.

Some lifeless poetry readings drag the whole enterprise down even further.

While there's enough in Graves' story to ensure viewers remain compelled throughout, there is a nagging feeling that writer and director William Nunez could've been bolder with the tale.

There are plenty of handsomely mounted dramas about troubled writers, and The Laureate sits comfortably among them without doing anything vastly different.

The Laureate tells this story, which sounds anything but dreary, and yet in writer-director William Nunez’s over-earnest drama somehow manages to be just that.