I didn't want to do this, but this movie seems to have created polarization equalled only by the baffling politics that's going on now. Firstly, there's the cringeworthy reviews by people loudly complaining that there's no colour and the screen is half chopped off. Many don't even have the concept of Aspect Ratio, or can allow that B&W with cramped aspect is a valid way to treat something set in century before last. Others complain simplistically that there's no plot, no coherence, no sense at all, which is obviously overstating the problem. Sure, there's almost complete lack of cohesion, and there's no forgiving that; we can also say that calling it a masterpiece is vastly overstating things in the opposite direction. What bothered me was that what artsy gimmicks there were, were too transparent or just overdone. Big dollops of subtlety are necessary when you tread this ground. None of that here. And if you were still there by the ending, well, that was the icing on the cake. All I could do was shake my head and whisper "Wtf??" Willem DaFoe and Robert Pattinson basically did pretty well, with DaFoe hamming it up to the hilt, while demonstrating that he's still got what it takes. Pattinson did nearly as well, although his accent was all over the place. In the end I have to evaluate this in terms of what effect it had on me, and I can only say I was left scratching my head. The only thing I can remotely compare this to is Lynch's Eraserhead, which, unlike this one, I went back and watched repeatedly until I was sure I understood it. I am unable to even consider doing that for this one. The "4" I gave this is for the photography and the acting.