Winter's Tale - the movie

While it's got nothing to do with Shakespeare's drama of the same name, Akiva Goldman's "Winter's Tale" (he directed "A Beautiful Mind") is about a beautiful heart. Though most critics see this overwrought story filled to the brim with sappiness, at its core, this is a fairy tale about sacrifice and repentance. Strange virtues for a society of selfies. Inspirational fodder for those of us who are, alas, hopeless romantics. Dreamers. Believers in redemption.

That there is an author out there, Mark Helprin, who can spin a story like a Grimm brother, and that someone got it spot on by pairing the handsome and utterly charming Colin Farrell with the, as his character Peter Lake said, "impossibly beautiful" Jessica Brown Findlay (otherwise sorely missed Lady Sybil of "Downton Abbey" fame) is not only brilliant but blissful. And then there is that white pegasus that goes by the name of Horse, a symbol of all that is good to fight all that is bad in the person of Pearly Soames (Russell Crowe) who receives orders from a comic book version of Satan (under-acted by Will Smith).

But, the sweet spot in the movie that might be sorely overlooked, especially by boys writing reviews who prefer something more action-packed, is that mystical and perfect tent built on various rooftops for a dying girl. What more could one ask for? Who doesn't like to sleep outside and watch the stars? And, better yet, gaze at the universe with someone like Colin Farrell in mind.

This movie will steal your heart, if you let the reality of the fable sink in.