A Wry Comedy – ***Warning: Spoilers*** The appropriate adjective is "absurd." This is an understated comedy about the absurdity of a government bureaucracy and legal system in which no one but the the clerical workers have anything to do. It is not so much a "police procedural" as a satire on how the procedures are employed by everyone throughout the chain of command to justify numbingly wasting hour after hour, day after day, doing essentially nothing. Unfortunately, for most of the film the audience may not be entirely in on the joke.
We follow the main character, Cristi, as he engages in a meaningless investigation involving three high school students which should have ended on day one but drags on and on as nothing further happens. The plot device which successfully holds our interest is Cristi's supposed crisis of "conscience" over the possibility of ruining the life of the young suspected drug dealer among the three.
However, in a pair of ending scenes which are truly funny and confirm that for the past two hours we have been watching a comedy, Cristi's crisis of conscience is challenged by his superior in an absurd dialogue involving the dictionary - and the following day Cristi outlines a plan to arrest the subjects which is so detailed you would think the targets are the heads of an international cartel. In the end, Cristi's moral dilemma appears to be as much related to his need to attach some meaning to his job as to any reservations over draconian Romanian drug laws.
There are no villains here, with the possible exception of "the squealer," the young snitch who started the investigation apparently due to some fissure in his former friendship with the target of the investigation. Everyone including the bosses seem to be basically decent people trying to find some way to cope with the boredom of their jobs in the same way that Cristi uses his crisis of conscience to cope with his.
As a viewer, this is what keeps you from feeling "punked" when you realize that what you have been watching was an exercise in coping with bureaucratic induced boredom. Just as the characters have to find a justification for the boredom and meaningless of their jobs, we have to find something, in this case Cristi's dilemma of conscience, to justify our watching their boredom for two hours – even though in the end this rationale is rendered effectively meaningless. It's human nature, shared by the characters and the viewers – if there is no real reason to justify how we are spending our time we will manufacture one.
In the end, although I would hesitate to recommend this movie, I do find substantial things to admire about it. It is smart and has a clear purpose which the director adhered to without deviation despite the fact that it cannot be easy, and requires tremendous restraint, to make a movie about endless boredom – and I don't mean that facetiously. And, in retrospect, it is funnier and more focused than it appears as you are watching it, as well as provocative enough to stimulate discussion. I don't find it as compelling as other recent Romanian works such as "Four Months etc." And I fall somewhere between those who effusively admire it and those who totally dismiss it – but I would definitely pay attention to this director's future efforts.
We follow the main character, Cristi, as he engages in a meaningless investigation involving three high school students which should have ended on day one but drags on and on as nothing further happens. The plot device which successfully holds our interest is Cristi's supposed crisis of "conscience" over the possibility of ruining the life of the young suspected drug dealer among the three.
However, in a pair of ending scenes which are truly funny and confirm that for the past two hours we have been watching a comedy, Cristi's crisis of conscience is challenged by his superior in an absurd dialogue involving the dictionary - and the following day Cristi outlines a plan to arrest the subjects which is so detailed you would think the targets are the heads of an international cartel. In the end, Cristi's moral dilemma appears to be as much related to his need to attach some meaning to his job as to any reservations over draconian Romanian drug laws.
There are no villains here, with the possible exception of "the squealer," the young snitch who started the investigation apparently due to some fissure in his former friendship with the target of the investigation. Everyone including the bosses seem to be basically decent people trying to find some way to cope with the boredom of their jobs in the same way that Cristi uses his crisis of conscience to cope with his.
As a viewer, this is what keeps you from feeling "punked" when you realize that what you have been watching was an exercise in coping with bureaucratic induced boredom. Just as the characters have to find a justification for the boredom and meaningless of their jobs, we have to find something, in this case Cristi's dilemma of conscience, to justify our watching their boredom for two hours – even though in the end this rationale is rendered effectively meaningless. It's human nature, shared by the characters and the viewers – if there is no real reason to justify how we are spending our time we will manufacture one.
In the end, although I would hesitate to recommend this movie, I do find substantial things to admire about it. It is smart and has a clear purpose which the director adhered to without deviation despite the fact that it cannot be easy, and requires tremendous restraint, to make a movie about endless boredom – and I don't mean that facetiously. And, in retrospect, it is funnier and more focused than it appears as you are watching it, as well as provocative enough to stimulate discussion. I don't find it as compelling as other recent Romanian works such as "Four Months etc." And I fall somewhere between those who effusively admire it and those who totally dismiss it – but I would definitely pay attention to this director's future efforts.