Like many others that delivered Gravity the largest October opening weekend ever, I too caught Alfonso Cuaron‘s latest a second time. I gave it a “B+” when I reviewed it out of Toronto and would probably give it the same grade again after a second viewing, or perhaps a “B”. The biggest problem for me is the lack of emotional attachment I felt for the characters. I felt for Bullock’s character more on just a human level, and a concern for her well-being out of simply not wanting to see her die. However, it didn’t extend beyond that after hearing more about her. Perhaps she can merely be a representative of the human race, but I would have liked a little more. Visually, though, it’s a marvel.
Additionally I caught About Time, Carrie, Runner Runner and Captain Phillips in theaters this week as well as watched Denis Villeneuve‘s early film, Maelstrom at home and I’m hoping to watch Incendies next week.
Maelstrom isn’t half-bad. Narrated by a grotesque little fish, the story follows a young woman whom we first meet as she has her first abortion. Her friend, who’s had three, tells her not to feel guilty, what’s the point? What’s done is done. Unable to get it off her mind, she carelessly crashes into a middle-aged fish monger in the middle of a rainy night. She drives away as he stumbles home where he’ll later die. The story goes on in ways I won’t reveal, but it’s interesting to see some of the reviews from back in 2002 calling it a darkly comedic morality tale, while I merely saw it dark… period.
The DVD comes with a director’s note where he too sees it as more of just a story of a girl learning a lesson, but I can’t say I’m entirely sure what lesson she’s learned. Perhaps a value for life considering the life she aborted and the life she then took while drunk and high on drugs, and the relationship that would later come as a result? She wants to take responsibility, but she doesn’t until the final moment. Perhaps it’s a comedy of errors, or one of life’s cruel jokes, a relationship created out of the ultimate of tragedies. It’s well made and interesting, but once I start digging into it a bit deeper I’m not sure what to make of it.
