FILMBRATS - REVIEWS

This is the story of three women. Delia moves upstate to try to get away from her abusive husband and start a new life with her kids. Greta tries to deal with her sudden success as an editor and reassesses everything from her past. Paula tries to get away from the scene of a horrible accident that left her mentally scarred by driving up to her mother’s house with a teenage runaway hitchhiker she found along the way.

Writer/director Rebecca Miller (daughter of playwright Arthur) gives us a look at three very distinctive stories and lumps them on top of each other. Collectively, the three don’t have a whole lot in common, actually. There are a lot of similarities that apply to two of them, but not all. I wasn’t even left liking all of them. I felt Greta’s character (played by Parker Posey) was actually quite despicable. However, in a strange way, that’s part of the movie’s charm.

What’s good about the film is what’s fresh. What’s bad about the film is everything else. First – the fresh. The three women never meet. Their lives don’t intersect. The only bit of connection between the half-hour stories is a little news blurb that lets you know they’re all within the same television station’s reach. Frankly, I could have done without even that. It would be better to know that it’s happening all over, rather than a centralized location. It was good to show that you don’t have to like a character to be interested in their story. It actually makes it more fascinating if you don’t like the person, because without that connection, it’s more voyeuristic. Also, even though none of the stories were connected, per se, the film still managed to “wrap up.” It didn’t feel like the third story ended, it felt like the movie ended.

The not so fresh aspect was the cinematography. For the most part, I can’t stand digital video. This was not an effect or purposeful utilization of the format. Everything was too blown out/overexposed and too much like a home movie for a narrative. It’s disappointing, considering the cinematographer is Ellen Kuras (“Blow” and a better example of what digital video could/should look like, “Bamboozled”). The potential saving grace is the interludes that use stills. Not only do the forward the action without the regular “velocity,” but they also transport us deeper into the mindset of the character. It is a little quirky and gimmicky, but overall effective just the same.

The movie essentially is a somewhat interesting experiment. It dabbles with some conventions in storytelling and presentation. But, although the changes are relatively minor, the potential impact is large. I can’t help but think there’s a similar message hidden within the context of the movie. However, in the end, it didn’t really “move” me too much.

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