The Name of the Rose review

 Number 506 on the top 1000 films of all time is the mystery historical drama 'The Name of the Rose.'

Set in a 14th century Benedictine Abbey in Northern Italy, Franciscan friar William of Baskeville (Sean Connery) arrives with his novice Adso (Christian Slater) to discover a gruesome murder has taken place. When William begins investigating, more murders start happening. F. Murray Abraham and Ron Perlman co-star.

At its heart, this was a who-dunnit in a historical setting. William and Adso were stand-ins for Sherlock and Dr Watson with William even saying "it's elementary." Who-dunnits should be gripping thrillers brimming with tension, but I was bored for most of the film.

Neither Connery or Slater were great in the lead roles. Connery was playing himself and Slater was playing a wet blanket of a character. This was only Slater's second film role. He wasn't great, giving a lifeless and dull performance. It didn't help that his character was an audience proxy, providing exposition where necessary, and where it wasn't necessary too, except for the weird moment where the village girl sleeps with him, because of... reasons. This love story was a big subplot, but it wasn't convincing at all. As William rightly points out, Adso is confusing lust with love.

The Name of the Rose was also excruciatingly slow. Much of the film focussed on singing monks and church politics. I get this is set in an abbey, but it didn't make for the most entertaining of cinema. By the time, we had meandered to the film's conclusion, I had all but lost interest.

The Name of the Rose was a plodding affair, devoid of dramatic tension or interesting characters. A while ago I wrote an article about films that could put you to sleep. If I were to write another one, the Name of the Rose would surely take the top place.