Hey, everyone. "Moriarty" here with some Rumblings From The Lab.
Mr. Beaks isn’t just turning into one of the most reliable LA spies working, he’s also recruiting new blood now. I guess that makes him Al Pacino, and it makes Irish-Man Colin Farrell. Let’s see if Beaks is, indeed, a “scary judge of talent”...
Hello everyone, top o’ the morning to you. Irish-Man here with a review for “Dot the i.” I saw this last week and wanted to share my thoughts and hopefully stir up some more interest. Here you go:
I remember reading a brief snippet about this in one of the Sundance reports. I believe the person called it “this year’s ‘Memento’,” which is why I was interested in the first place. Well, I didn’t get this year’s “Memento.” I did, however, get a very good movie that needs some more praise thrown its way.
The only name I recognized was Gael Garcia Bernal, one of the two guys from “Y Tu Mama Tambien.” He is also one of the main characters in this movie and probably the most prominent of the three leads.
In a nutshell, the movie is about a love triangle set in London, with a Spanish girl meeting a Brazilian guy (Bernal) on her “hen night” (bachelorette party). Sure enough, she starts to fall for him and questions if she’s doing the right thing by marrying her fiancée, who is more stable, but less passionate. It sounds cliché, but the great thing about this movie is they take the whole setup and update it, ending with an entirely different movie than one you would expect.
Don’t get me wrong; the love triangle is well done. The girl is attractive, with a mysterious past, the guy (Bernal) is quite likeable and convincing, and the fiancée (James D’Arcy I think) is, of course, a nice guy who doesn’t have the spark that Bernal does, but doesn’t deserve to get hurt either. The whole thing develops realistically, and you actually feel sympathy for all the characters. Nobody is portrayed in a blatantly bad light. Sure, there are some moments of frustration or anger, but you never root against any of them. And amazingly, instead of being quickly drawn characters, all three of them have rather interesting backgrounds that this movie simply doesn’t have time to explain. This is a good thing though because you sense that all three are real people with stories, and this is just one of them.
A normal movie would end shortly after the girl makes her inevitable choice. This movie decides instead to turn convention upside-down. I won’t tell you what happens, but it makes you re-evaluate most of the previous movie. And instead of ending on a big twist, like so many do these days, this one keeps going in a new direction, following the story way past where I thought it was going to end. Again, this is good because you actually get to see the characters deal with the ramifications of the revelation. It doesn’t just happen to them so the audience can be shocked and go home surprised. It is part of the continuing story of these people. And it’s a very interesting story to boot.
This movie was obviously an independent feature, but a well-made one. London really looks grimy, with a lot of alleys and seedy apartments being used (and the rich fiancée’s fancy house). In fact, it could have been any city in Europe, if not for the fact that the signs are in English. No shots of the skyline, no panoramic camera angles. It’s a very intimate story and the camerawork follows. The music was also well chosen in my opinion. Rarely do the songs stick out in a movie, but they are all good in this. I heard others around me commenting on the quality of the songs as well. The pacing was great; the movie was only an hour and half long, but not too short. There were only two scenes that I thought dragged a little, but not intolerably so. And there’s even a sex scene, but no real nudity... just hints.
So overall, this is a really good love drama that goes in a completely different and satisfying direction for the last 20-30 minutes. I don’t know if that’s a good way to sell it to you or not, but I hope it is because this is a movie that shouldn’t be overlooked. Out of the four people in my group, we all thought it was very good to excellent. So check it out if you get the chance.
Until next time,
Irish-Man
PS... I also saw “Wrong Turn” last week with Mr. Beaks. All I can say is that I whole-heartedly agree with his review. It’s not even worth my time to write one of my own. It’s a cheap, poorly written, boringly directed, and lazily acted crapfest. Stay away from it even if it gets into theaters. And that’s a big IF. Trust me, Eliza Dushku is not worth it. And I even like her... why do you think I went? A total disappointment.
Wow. Sounds like everyone who saw WRONG TURN is having trouble letting go of their anger. I’m glad Irish-Man chose to write in about something he really liked, though, because that’s always more important.
"Moriarty" out.
