This movie requires more work than most people are willing to put in, and ultimately is a useful tool to gauge one's own film expectations.
Where some complain of pace, I was content to listen to the glorious music (as even the characters on screen did) and allow it to tell me the story.
Only after I was forced to view a still image for an interminable amount of time, and feel the anger rise up in me as I imagined the creators of the film laughing at me, did I notice that it created the necessary tension for what was the climax of the film.
I enjoyed having to pay attention to the details of the film, such as how loud the running water was, and what happened when that volume changed; such as whose perspective was I looking from at a particular moment and why; such as why the image persisted but the sound did not, or vice versa; such as why the floor in the beginning looks like a chess board, and who seemed to win at the end.
The less you enjoy thinking about these things, the less you will enjoy this film about shattered innocence, life, death, birth, dreams, causality, and memory.
Where some complain of pace, I was content to listen to the glorious music (as even the characters on screen did) and allow it to tell me the story.
Only after I was forced to view a still image for an interminable amount of time, and feel the anger rise up in me as I imagined the creators of the film laughing at me, did I notice that it created the necessary tension for what was the climax of the film.
I enjoyed having to pay attention to the details of the film, such as how loud the running water was, and what happened when that volume changed; such as whose perspective was I looking from at a particular moment and why; such as why the image persisted but the sound did not, or vice versa; such as why the floor in the beginning looks like a chess board, and who seemed to win at the end.
The less you enjoy thinking about these things, the less you will enjoy this film about shattered innocence, life, death, birth, dreams, causality, and memory.