ihavebeenfloated

Here’s a short version of this review for people who run in the “too long; didn’t read” crowd: This is an amazingly beautiful and excellent movie. Go and see it. Now.

Now, for the long version…

I was a little wary on seeing this film. I’d heard about if, of course, stuff about critics walking out on it and it getting booed and all this other stupid crap. In all honesty, that only made me want to see it more. I couldn’t imagine that Nicole Kidman, who I’d lost a tiny bit of love and respect over the last year or two, would stand behind a movie that could be that “bad” in the eyes of the critical community. I just didn’t believe it.

So what better way to find out? See it myself, I suppose. I was still wary. I was mostly worried that it would actually be a bad movie, or maybe go too far in some ways. Luckily, I was wrong on all counts, and the majority of critics who pan this film just miss the goddamn point completely.

This, my friends, is a film about sorrow and loss. It’s not a film about some crazy woman falling in love with some ten year old boy who says he’s her dead husband. There is no shock and awe in this film. There are no incestuous love scenes between a little boy and an older woman, sorry to disappoint you. Everyone else who claims different is a fool, as there is nothing even remotely scandalous in this film at all. (Except for the most prudent, of course, who can find fault in anything).

Now that we’ve gotten that out of the way…

One of initially striking things about the film, just from the opening sequence, is that this is a beautiful film. It’s unmistakably beautiful, there is something serene and gorgeous about the gray desolation of the park in winter. We follow a man jogging down the road, little flutters of activity happening around him as he jogs. A pack of dogs run past the front of him, and it’s a gorgeous moment in its simplicity. The score, as well, highlights this moment in the film so wonderfully I knew I was in for a treat. There are times when you hear a piece of a score over a certain segment in film, and it’s so absolutely unexpected by undeniably perfect that you wonder how anyone could ever think up something so marvelous, the opening sequence of this film is one of those moments.

The rest of the film is shot just as gorgeously. Heavy use of very finely focused close ups certainly add to the atmosphere as well, and when you are working with someone as emotionally full and gorgeous as Nicole Kidman is in this film, there is no better technique.

At one point, early into the film, the camera rests on a close up of Anna’s (Nicole Kidman) face for some time while a flurry of emotions surge through her. You see all the pain, all the potential happiness, the unrelenting sorrow, the disbelief, the desire to believe, the trying to shrug it off and almost succeeding, and the subsequent failure to get over it. This is the most beautiful moment I have ever witnessed on film. I was so awed by these few minutes of film that I don’t think I will ever recover from them. I can’t get them out of my head.

There is something so utterly true, so honest and believable, from Kidman’s performance here that you shouldn’t be able to shake it from you. If it wasn’t for her performance in this, the movie would probably have fallen completely flat, but Kidman is so absolutely and completely Anna in this that you don’t ever, not once, see her as Nicole Kidman. The woman you are watching on screen is Anna, and is no one else. It’s almost impossible to break your suspension of disbelief when you are watching Kidman portray this character so beautifully.

It helps, as well, that all the supporting cast members are pitch perfect as well. There isn’t a moment when someone feels out of place in any way. Needless to say, Cameron Bright is excellent as well, as the “little boy” who says he is Anna’s dead husband. Anna’s fiance, Joseph, is played perfectly by Danny Huston. Anne Heche was actually unrecognizable to me, I think it was because she was actually delivering a decent performance for the first time in her life, which was nice.

Most of all, and most importantly, the story is the best part of the movie. All the developments feel very real, everything about this film is deeply rooted in reality in every way. If you sit down and watch it, and completely suspend your disbelief as all responsible film watchers should, then you should have absolutely no problem committing yourself to this film and feeling everything it has to offer you. There is not a single moment in the film that seems unreal, nothing seems unlikely. I wasn’t pulled out of the movie once by anything that I thought was gimmicky.

I was dreading, really dreading, that the “pay off” at the end of the movie would fall flat, sort of like The Final Cut, but it didn’t. The film does suffer a little from being able to “predict” the ending, but I think that was purposeful. Regardless of the fact that you think you know what is happening, you are always second guessing yourself because you don’t understand how even if you think you know why. I was impressed, even all the way up to the very last second of film, it was honest and responsible. It never fell back on a cheap trick or a final jab, the point of the film was always very clear to me, and it was satisfying for me.

This is a film about sorrow and loss, and it will haunt you as if you have lost someone you loved.