We wrapped up Saturday with a good short and my FAVORITE feature film. The short was Pat's First Kiss a HILARIOUS animated film about a shy guy and his first kiss while on a trip to Europe. The animation was a little different, but the story was laugh out loud FUNNY. I wish I could find it online to share it, but its not out there yet. Bummer for you.
The feature was one I was eagerly anticipating just based on the pic of the 2 leads.... and the description of the story... yea, the STORY. Basically, Mark is killed in the first few minutes, and the rest of the film is about his best friend Jeff coping with the death and discovering that Mark had been carrying on an online romance for the past year with Anderea - a hot italian guy - and he never knew about it at all. Jeff discovers this when he is looking at Mark's computer and reads an email from Andrea mentioning that he will be arriving as planned. Jeff at first tells Andrea not to come, but later changes his mind and invites him anyways. They then have a weekend sharing their memories of Mark, dealing with his death, and tentatively reaching out to each other.
Many people didn't like this movie, for several reasons. First off, it moved very slowly. There were relatively long scenes that were completely devoid of dialogue, only the visuals and actors expressions to let you know what was happening. Many people couldn't get beyond that and became restless. Personally, I felt that this really seemed to be in keeping with the subject matter: recovering from the death of a best friend is NOT a fast process, and at times there is nothing to say. I made a comparison between this movie and a campfire: many movies burn hot and furious, just like a fire. This movie was more like the campfire after the flames have died down; the heat is still there, and is extremely intense, but it SMOLDERS. This movie does just that - it burns slow, but hot. There is no quick passion, but it really builds.
The other problem that people had was the sex... or lack thereof. With two OH so hot actors in this film, apparently they are supposed to be humping like bunnies. They didn't. But they also didn't need to. There was more heat and passion in just a few glances than there would have been in an entire in0detail sex scene. I really loved that - it often annoys me when a movie will toss in a gratuitous sex scene just to appeal to the masses!
As I said, this was my favorite movie of the entire festival. The actors in this once were SO good, they were able to convey SO MUCH with looks and expressions and silence. The director also had an incredible visual sense, and nearly every scene was framed and lit perfectly. And lets talk casting. OMG. I have said they are hot but come on now. Jeff is the love child of Seann William Scott and Guy Pearce. And I think that Andrea's eyelashes each got a separate credit. These guys are almost too much. But the funny thing is, they never seemed to really notice that they were hot. It just.... was.
I know that not everyone will have the chance, but if you DO have a chance, see it.
Ciao on IMDb.
