A Brilliant Work
Added 10/12/2009
Dark and subtly woven, this artistic portrayal of an actual event deserves every accolade it's received, plus some. Rich and lush in its imagery, short in dialogue yet long in emotion, this film explores the vast landscape of aging and middle-aged love in all their permutations. Betrayal begets heartbreak and supressed fury as both artist and muse struggle through the treacherous hills and valleys of reconciliation. Its masterful conclusion leaves viewers grappling with the ultimate dilemma of "what would I have done?"
1 out of 1 people found this helpful.
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Bits and Pieces
Added 1/8/2007
I am not sure, but I think the moviemakers of this movie took all the scene cuts they'd made for the movie, threw them up into the air, then spliced them together as they picked them up and called that their movie.
To try to figure out what was supposed to be happening, I tried looking up the artist in this so-called true story, and could find nothing about him. So, I didn't have a book to read, or even a magazine article, to see what his life was like. I'd hoped if I knew a little something about him, I could make heads or tales of this movie.
Therefore, I conclude that this movie if for those types of people who like to read intellectual jibberish and claim they 'understand' it. Of the more than 3,000 movies in my collection, this one comes in near or even at the bottom in the editing category.
There are way too many good movies out there to waste time on this one. If you want super-excellent movies also put out by Mongrel Media, watch 'Somersault' or 'Eve & the Firehorses.'
2 out of 4 people found this helpful.
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Half and Half
Added 8/28/2005
I hate writing movie reviews, but this time I feel overwhelmingly compelled.
This is the story of struggling "camera-obscura" painter Julius Morlang (Paul Freeman) who is also struggling to maintain his marriage to Ellen (Diana Kent), who has cheated on Julius with a rival artist, and the fact that Ellen gets diagnosed with a malignant tumor doesn't make things any better.
But, of course, these events are revealed to us out of order along the lines of 21 Grams and Memento, but failed to maintain my suspense and interest like those films did.
Instead, the film introduces us to Julius's girlfriend Ann (Susan Lynch) before revealing what happens to Ellen, and switches between past and present (I think) to confuse us on purpose. The first 40 minutes or so plays out like a ghost story or haunted house yarn, and probably would've been more entertaining if it had played up the supernatural angle (my opinion), but then we find out what's really going on and I had to ask the question "...and? So? That's it?"
I was able to figure out why Julius was going out of his mind with guilt, and if they had, maybe, focused more on the "pact" he makes and its sinister outcome and put it earlier in the story I probably would've fallen in love with this movie, but it's held off until the third act as some kind of a twist that doesn't work without the proper setup (the scene of Julius waiting between the beach rocks could've been the best scene of the movie if handled correctly).
There is, however, a very chilling Hitchcockian scene late in this film that involves a message left on an answering machine and the removal of said message, but that's about it.
I realize this is supposed to be more of a "psychological" thriller, and where the film is well-acted and does contain some beautiful and interesting shots, director Tjebbo Penning either didn't want to or doesn't know how to tell this kind of a story (with the time-jumping) in the correct way so that we know just enough to understand what's going on and want to continue watching.
2 out of 6 people found this helpful.
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