Reviews

I saw this at the Toronto Film Festival and am sorry to see that it has not yet received wider distribution. It's about a professor who returns home after being hospitalized for a serious psychotic episode, but his wife is not certain that all is well. And the cat has mysteriously vanished, too. What's going on here? This is one of the most satisfying homages to Hitchcock that I have ever seen. Though, low key, it is very witty and playful. It does not go in for broad gestures, but subtle ones instead. The suspense is initially seems almost an afterthought, and then it builds up by slight degrees until it reaches a suitably droll Hitchcock-ian conclusion. The director, Carlos Sorin, spoke at the screening and said that he was not used to making this kind of movie and that he had no plans to make any more. I certainly hope that he reconsiders because he brings a great deal of wry humour and directorial skill to this project. I saw another more highly touted Argentine film this year, Carancho, but I thought this film was easily superior, partly because of its lightness of touch. Well worth seeking out if you ever get the opportunity to see it.

I think this is the best movie of 2011 so far. A very different, but brilliantly conceived three part police procedural that is really a character study of two men and how they each deal with the past. In many ways, I had a similar experience here to what I have when I read a really good novel. The characters are rich and complex, often funny, and thoroughly believable. Nothing is crammed down the audience's throat, yet there is so much detail and nuance that it becomes easy to see the two men for the basically good, complex people they are. This is a movie that respects the audience's intelligence. It is also a movie that is easily among the best shot and edited of the year. In fact, it is hard to think of a single thing that I would suggest to improve the film. I have seen other Ceylan films, but nothing of his has ever had the depth, nuance and humanity of this one.

If you can make the leap of faith required in the final portion of the movie, this is a beautiful, haunting work that will stay with you long after you have left the theater. There is no question that this movie asks a lot of one's suspension of disbelief. But I think that movie goers should give it the benefit of a doubt. This is a very unconventional love story, and it may be the most thoughtful movie every made about the idea that one person can be another person's soul mate. The tension of course arises when what does one do when one finds a deeper, more meaningful soul mate. This is a complex work with a totally different way of investigating its romantic themes. It uses music beautifully as a thread that joins elements of the film together, binding emotional themes together and providing transitions between the two stories that it tells. I can't think of another movie that finds such an unique approach to telling its tale.It is also the best Canadian film that I have seen in years. One of the very best movies of the year.