A trailer seen at our local art-film house caused me to put this one on our "films-to-see" list. After a year's wait, we found it at a local video store, and began to view it with eager anticipation. For the first ten minutes, we were befuddled with the static camera-work and framing, the wooden immobile blocking, the stilted, terse dialogue (even so for Finns)... it just seemed all so amateurish. The film was gripping in its "differentness" - so much so that we decided that it must be a "style" piece.
FASCINATING! (to paraphrase Spock rather precisely).
After a night's sleep - the film's images firmly planted into my brain, I awake this morning recognizing that what I have seen is a comic-book-like "graphic novel" in motion-picture form. You can almost see the "balloons" surrounding the stilted dialogue. The casting is SUPERB in its selection of characteristic sharply-chiseled facial and body-types. No one here has to be an actor, although they certainly may be in real life. The players in this comedy are icons -- comic-book characters brought to living breathing life. The film proceeds static frame by static frame. You just have to see it to believe how well-done it is.
I am no fan of graphic novels, and what little I know of them comes from proximity to and affection for my elder daughter - who is a Neil Gaiman (Sandman, et al.) aficionado.
But to see a talking motion picture pick up the style is ... surprising and delightful - especially considering the expertise and elegance with which it has been done. I mean - considering the vast gulf between the two media presentation styles, limitations and facilities -- "WHY?" Who cares! See it. Enjoy it. Don't get turned off by its apparent comic-book visual straitness (to coin a term). It is - after all - a comedy with pasted-on graphic-novel seriousness. Watch - particularly - for the protagonist to arise from the "dead" and straighten his own broken nose beneath a complete headdress of bandaging before making his escape from... but, I tell too much. Proof - however - of this film's true comic nature.
I have not read any other reviews of this film, so I do not know if my assumption of the filmmaker's intent and style is accurate. But, for me, the epiphany added a wonderful "AHA!" to the earlier puzzled enjoyment of initial viewing. I'm headed to our video system directly after finishing this to watch this film again - something I rarely do.
See it! I award it a 9.5!
FASCINATING! (to paraphrase Spock rather precisely).
After a night's sleep - the film's images firmly planted into my brain, I awake this morning recognizing that what I have seen is a comic-book-like "graphic novel" in motion-picture form. You can almost see the "balloons" surrounding the stilted dialogue. The casting is SUPERB in its selection of characteristic sharply-chiseled facial and body-types. No one here has to be an actor, although they certainly may be in real life. The players in this comedy are icons -- comic-book characters brought to living breathing life. The film proceeds static frame by static frame. You just have to see it to believe how well-done it is.
I am no fan of graphic novels, and what little I know of them comes from proximity to and affection for my elder daughter - who is a Neil Gaiman (Sandman, et al.) aficionado.
But to see a talking motion picture pick up the style is ... surprising and delightful - especially considering the expertise and elegance with which it has been done. I mean - considering the vast gulf between the two media presentation styles, limitations and facilities -- "WHY?" Who cares! See it. Enjoy it. Don't get turned off by its apparent comic-book visual straitness (to coin a term). It is - after all - a comedy with pasted-on graphic-novel seriousness. Watch - particularly - for the protagonist to arise from the "dead" and straighten his own broken nose beneath a complete headdress of bandaging before making his escape from... but, I tell too much. Proof - however - of this film's true comic nature.
I have not read any other reviews of this film, so I do not know if my assumption of the filmmaker's intent and style is accurate. But, for me, the epiphany added a wonderful "AHA!" to the earlier puzzled enjoyment of initial viewing. I'm headed to our video system directly after finishing this to watch this film again - something I rarely do.
See it! I award it a 9.5!