Reviews

Didn't know what it wanted to say or didn't know how to say it -- maybe both. Could have been hilarious. Excellent cast could have risen to the opportunity, had the writer provided even slightly more opportunity. Too bad...

After reading about all the awards and nominations for this movie,

I was ready to be blown away, especially by a low-budget indie that

was supposed to have a surprise ending. This movie was a

sleep-walk, a disappointing bore. The characters were so thinly

drawn, none of their actions were credible, logical or interesting in

any way. If there was an award-winning performance in there, it

was well-hidden. For the life of me, I can't understand all the

praise. In fact, it seemed that an excellent cast was squandered

on minimalist writing and inept directing. When I learned the

movie was based on a short story, I understood the director's

mistake. He probably did an excellent job of bringing a short story

to the screen, but without converting it to a compelling movie.

Reading all those moods and silences is one thing. Trying to read

characters' minds on screen with no context or past behavior to

guide us is just an imposition. When a story about parents losing

their son to a violent death fails to produce a single grabbing

emotional scene, you know something is wrong. The one memorable moment was during the second card game. The poem was truly moving.

Of course, I might be missing something, but I don't think so. I am

reminded of Chance in Being There. Could it be that a single critic

or festival director turned this dull effort into a hit because nobody

will speak the truth? This movie was just one long yawn.

You'll be disappointed if you expect to find much insight or genuine human emotion in this ultra-thin movie, which is really four stories artificially connected. What you'll get is a parade of stereotypical diversity images -- your basic gay (lesbian) couple, your basic Jewish parents,your basic Hispanic family,your basic Asian family and your mandatory Black family. Each family group is made to appear to be struggling with some fundamental culturally-driven (often racially-connected) family crisis, but there are no real crisis issues and not much happens. Nobody really changes. The superficiality of this inoffensive and generally pleasant little movie obviously relates to the fact that the writer/director is not a US native, so we get the flawed and incomplete perceptions of a foreigner who doesn't know enough about any particular cultural strain within US society to deliver one compelling and insightful story. Instead she gives us four short sketches that teach us nothing and go nowhere. ("Can't we all just get along?")

This movie should have been better. It was an interesting story, well-acted, but cluttered with distractions, the most annoying of which was the main character's continuing narration, which never added to or advanced the story. The primary weakness was the writing, manifested by poorly-developed characters whose relationships were never credible and whose behavior was seldom coherent. I wondered finally if the initial edit produced such an uneven and difficult-to-understand movie that the director hastily shot all the narration scenes and cut them in to try to pull the whole mess together. But once into the movie, I couldn't quit it, mainly because of Judith Godreche, who I couldn't see enough of and whose performance was the most interesting of all.

Mainly the movie is a stylish mess, reflecting a casual disregard for plot logic. It might have been fun, however, had it not been so blatantly racist -- indeed, race-baiting. Most disturbing of all is the trumped-up ending which defines the underlying anti-social message of the film. A similar story by a white director with the racial roles reversed would never have received distribution, and rightly so. Shaft is sloppy work,which is bad enough; but it also sends an irresponsible message.