This film has, as the director John Krasinski put himself, strong indie influences. The non-chronological time-line, the frequent cuts between scenes, the overlapping of events...I think this is perhaps some of the reason why it receives such conflicting reviews. Every person has a subjective experience of every film and mine was, bluntly, that I was blown away. As I just pointed out, the chronology of events is completely out of whack, and while reviews of the film point it out as a weakness, I think it's a strength. It makes you focus on what's going on and to really pay attention to it, and it's rewarding when you do. There is so much depth in this story, or rather series of stories, that their sparsity and seeming lack of coherence is a statement in itself. Pretentious sounding statement followed by pseudo-profound insight. I know. But I think it's true. There are four distinct episodes in the film that are in my mind the strongest, and are my four favourite - so watch out for them! They are as follows: 1. The episode featuring Christopher Meloni and Denis O'Toole. Meloni tells a story about a girl he met in an airport, and the end of the scene is superbly acted out as far as I'm concerned. 2. Subject #42 and his father. It's an emotional thing to watch, the generation gap between these two men, and yet how fiercely they love each other, though they don't say it. I know it's kitsch and an overused plot line, but I think it's acted out so realistically that it ceases to be cheesy but instead very moving. 3. The storyline concerning Dominic Cooper's character, Daniel, who wrote his paper on how sexual assaults can sometimes be character building - making clear that of course the assault is awful at the time, but afterwards, the person can become stronger and use that experience to build up their strength and sense of self. The scenes which follow are an almost schizophrenic stream of consciousness as we see Daniel in four different places - Sara's office, the function room, the café, steps on the college campus - but having one monologue which remains uninterrupted except for the change of scene. The monologue gets more and more frenzied as the plot begins to unravel and the climax is heart-breaking. Concomitant with all of this is one or two clips of previously seen footage and all the while there is some kind of rock music playing which, when I first watched the film, seemed completely out of sync, but now I think perhaps that was the point. It makes Daniel's monologue even more uncomfortable and heart-wrenching. 4. The monologue that is the ultimate climax of the film, spoken by Ryan, the character played by John Krasinski.
You should watch this film and see what I'm talking about. It's well worth it.
You should watch this film and see what I'm talking about. It's well worth it.