While undoubtably one of the most beautiful movies I have ever seen, I wasn't as infatuated with this film as I thought I'd be. Let's talk about what I loved first, which was honestly quite a lot. The visuals are incredible, with the camerawork and overall visual style existing simply yet also framing the ongoing drama in such an incredible way that its a wonder more movies don't look like this. The soundtrack is also amazing, a little repetitive perhaps but the score is great in all respects. It's hard for any soundtrack to not sound repetitive after three hours, to be fair. In addition to the normal things I love about movies, the characters here were well written and acted, bringing a lot of life to the otherwise bleak landscape they inhabit. Barry was definitely my favorite, not in the sense that I would want to be his friend, but I thought his development and changing nature over the course of the film was very interesting to watch. The story itself is good, but definitely runs long. I know many filmmakers, especially Kubrick, do not really mind longer films, and I'd like to believe I don't either. This is a slow film with a lot of separate parts, beautiful compositions and moments, and wonderful music to go along with them. I don't think I could stand to watch this movie in its entirety again soon, but this is nothing to do with its quality. This is an underrated work that I wish more movies would model themselves off of, especially the horde of modern period pieces that dilute the genre.