I got the feeling a lot of care went into the production of this film, but ultimately I walked away unsatisfied. Instead of catharsis, this mournful story left me with feelings of frustration. I heard another viewer express the same reservation after the show.
Wonderful acting all around; decent photography; interesting and fairly believable story. But nothing really clicks. I suspect part of the reason for this is that the main character simply isn't easy to sympathize with: her motivation throughout the story seems, to me, to be selfish and thoughtless. ***POSSIBLE SPOILER*** When she complains to the neurosurgery nurse, at the bedside of her now paralyzed boyfriend Joachim, "I'm as unhappy as he is!" I voiced an objection aloud: "Oh, no, you're not!" She seemed to me totally self-centered and unlikable. Others may disagree with my take on her personality.
The use of one photographic effect irked me. There's a frequent shift to grainy black-and-white, apparently signifying a character's fantasy or notion of what he or she wishes were happening, instead of what is in fact happening. I found this awkward, confusing, and distracting. The soundtrack music seemed tacky and inappropriate. And the "arty" negative and blurry sequences that began and ended the film could happily have been dispensed with.
Wonderful acting all around; decent photography; interesting and fairly believable story. But nothing really clicks. I suspect part of the reason for this is that the main character simply isn't easy to sympathize with: her motivation throughout the story seems, to me, to be selfish and thoughtless. ***POSSIBLE SPOILER*** When she complains to the neurosurgery nurse, at the bedside of her now paralyzed boyfriend Joachim, "I'm as unhappy as he is!" I voiced an objection aloud: "Oh, no, you're not!" She seemed to me totally self-centered and unlikable. Others may disagree with my take on her personality.
The use of one photographic effect irked me. There's a frequent shift to grainy black-and-white, apparently signifying a character's fantasy or notion of what he or she wishes were happening, instead of what is in fact happening. I found this awkward, confusing, and distracting. The soundtrack music seemed tacky and inappropriate. And the "arty" negative and blurry sequences that began and ended the film could happily have been dispensed with.