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So did anyone see it? I hate to admit that I was too preoccupied with Serenity to go see this when it was in a theater close by and now I've missed it.
Should I hunt for it on DVD in a month or so? Was it worth it?
Posts: 6415 | Registered: Jul 2000
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I saw it at the Film Festival back in September. I highly recommend it- it's funny, moving and interesting. I liked it a lot more than Roman Polanksi's liver Twist which, incidentally (bragging coming up, I apologise) I saw on its world premiere, heh.
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In a nutshell, it's about a young American searching for the history of his grandfather in the Ukraine.
And yes, Polanski made Oliver Twist. However, I thought it suffered from choppiness. And it's not "ew", as you of course know.
Posts: 8473 | Registered: Apr 2003
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The closest it's playing is an hour away right now, but I'm willing to drive that. I really want to see this.
Does anyone know if this is just limited release right now? Or is this all the exposure the movie is going to get?
Posts: 8741 | Registered: Apr 2001
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I think that's it. It's already come and gone here in Portland and I totally missed it because I was so preoccupied with other things. *coughSerenitycough*
Posts: 6415 | Registered: Jul 2000
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I saw a trailer and it looks really good, but I've never heard of it outside of Apple Trailers. Hopefully it'll hit the dollar theatre nearby pretty soon.
Posts: 4089 | Registered: Apr 2003
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Leonide and I saw it last night and it was amazing.
A lot had to be cut out to make the movie doable. And so all of Jonathon's chapters of Trachembrod were cut out as well as Alex's letters to Jonathon discussing the two of their works. The movie is solely an account of Jonathon's trip through the Ukraine with Alex, the grandfather, and Sammy Davis Jr. Jr.
But what the movie does do, is completely nail the feeling, style, and theme of the book.
Stylistically the movie is amazing. Beautiful shots, some almost "too beautiful" which makes me think Liev Shrieber didn't completely cut out Alex's embellishing. And there is a small hint at this early on in the movie. That we have an unreliable narrator. Though, not as much unreliable, as just seeing the world and experiencing life through his own eyes and own particular ideas about what he sees. This movie, as well as the book, is a memory of an experience and the subject matter of the book/movie itself spends a lot of time dealing with memory and experience and how they shape us.
There's also a lot of silence in the movie. Sweeping shots of them driving across the country giving the audience as much of a chance "to take it all in" as the characters on the journey.
The movie has a very authentic feel to it. The soundtrack is all Russian artists and Russian songs. The actors are all actually Russian, and though people not familiar with the language usually can't tell the difference, it's nice to not have to cringe at the bad Russian accents that are usually thrown into most movies. The actors that play Alex and the grandfather both put in excellent performances and I hope that most of their nuances aren't lost in having to read the subtitles, especially in regards to the grandfather.
That is also a point worth mentioning. If you don't enjoy movies with subtitles, this might not be for you as approximately half the movie is subtitled.
But mostly I loved the movie for the same reasons I loved the book. Alex's absolute bastardization of the English language is not only hilarious in its own right, but his conversations with Safran Foer and his ruminations on his own experiences really make us question and think about many things we normally take for granted. This movie has the uncanny ability to alternitively make us laugh out loud as well as reflect deep within ourselves, a comedy as well as an emotional rollercoaster.
One main thing that I took away from the movie, which I either didn't "get" while reading the book, or it was just focused on more in the movie, was Alex's sort of coming of age, or enlightenment, or even "Illumination", throughout the story. This isn't just a story about a man searching for the history of his family, or about an old man coming to terms with his own history and memories of the past, but also a story of a young man growing up and beginning to question those things which he had always taken as givens.
Anyway, I obviously highly recommend this movie to everyone, regardless of whether they've read the book or not.
Posts: 8741 | Registered: Apr 2001
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Someone mentioned seeing this earlier today so I think we're going to go. A few other friends have seen it and they all said it was good.
It's nice living in a place where there are two theaters that show lesser known movies for extremely long periods of time. I think Eternal Sunshine was at one of them for 3 months and March of the Penguins is still at one of them.
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