Sum of Existence

"Sum of Existence" by first time director Jon Cohen is a great example of Australian independent film that is not afraid to present controversial ideas and concepts that are larger than life on such a shoe string budget.

The film presents the story of Liz, who after a traumatic and brutal experience is hypnotized in order to forget. In short it does help her recover from her complete psychotic break, but in the long run the treatment begins to affect her behavior towards those around her. The film therefore presents a realistic commentary on psychiatry and is a successful attempt of how most psychiatric treatments are short term behavior modifiers, but do not always work long term.

By placing this commentary in amongst a "serial kidnapper/rapist" storyline the film is heightened in its dramatic premise and keeps you entertained and intrigued.

The acting by the entire cast is strong and the vision functionally reflect this and the story nicely.

I have great respect for Jon and his team who were able to take a complex story and actually go out there and make it happen on such a low-budget and then to top it off they were able to score a nice time-slot on Channel 9 through sheer perseverance.

Patience and perseverance is exactly what this film is all about and if this is the first feature film by Jon Cohen then I look forward to experiencing future films of his... Give this guy a budget and see what happens...!!!!

I saw this movie. It was OK.

there were some incredibly strong performances from the actors, particularly from the girls who played Liz and Michelle. i found some of the other leads to be a bit over the top, some were a bit wooden, but overall the acting was one of the stronger points. the concept was interesting but wandered a little at times, at other times skimming over things which seemed like they deserved more attention.

it was difficult to really empathize with either of the female protagonists (the teenage girl or the psychiatrist)- mostly because their characters seemed to almost be fighting over which one was the focus of the main story. because of this they both came off a bit cold, something which may have been solved by their relationship with each other but wasn't. in their scenes together Juliet (the shrink) came off as patronizing and superficial, and the girl as a result just came off like a whiny brat (which considering she's recovering from a savage attack seems pretty damn harsh). there were other characters and sub-plots which could have brought a more human element to both these characters: Juliet had an ex-boyfriend character who was a rape counselor, any and all warmth about her character came from their relationship. unfortunately for her he was only in a couple of scenes (which also seemed strange considering his character was pretty much imperative to the whole story). he was one of the film's only completely sympathetic characters, had the potential to link Liz's family and Juliet on a more personal level but didn't. instead there was scene after scene of the parents fighting with each other which just distracted from the main story and made their characters seem cold and selfish. Liz had a best friend Michelle who spent most of the film going through an emotional crisis/ethical dilemma. the actress in this role delivered a notably convincing performance but the character just sort of added to the heaviness of the plot. there was a definite opportunity to balance this (which i can only assume was cut from the film for god knows what reason): they had a third friend who was a goth (the only teenage girl that didn't have blonde hair?) who for some reason was only there for the beginning and the end of the film. she was clearly supposed to be best friends with Liz and Michelle, it was set up that these 3 were being constantly verbally (albeit lamely) abused by the "popular girls" but that their strong friendship bond prevented the bitchiness from affecting them. why was she not around while Liz spent most of the film in a violent mental/emotional struggle and Michelle spent most of the film in tears? some of the other characters just blended in as part of the backdrop, such as the crazies in the psych ward, the bitchy girls, the nurses etc, probably their scenes could have been minimized as much of their interaction was unnecessary.

there were a couple of plot holes which was frustrating, it did seem as though there was little communication between the director/writer and the editor and some of the shots were weird and slightly inappropriate (stuff like characters cut off the edge of a shot for an entire scene... if they're there why can i only see their arm?). it ran too long (which i think is pretty standard fare for a writer/director debut)- some scenes dragged, some probably should have been cut. the music was really repetitive and often completely inappropriate. the dark mood probably would have been more balanced with a greater diversity of music- the only music was the score (apparently they lived in a suburb with no radio stations?) which was all based around a sombre piano that came in suddenly and forebodingly no matter what the scene.

there were some great elements in the film, there were also many things overlooked. brings up some interesting points but doesn't follow all of them through. the acting is good, if you can get past the urge to punch the characters for all being total downers. not a movie to cheer you up if you're feeling blue. might have made a great TV show.

they say that the sum of a films parts shouldn't equal more than it's whole. This is true with Sum of Existence. It has amazingly strong acting, strong story line, strong characters, strong direction, strong photography, but something about it doesn't quite fit.

It could be the edit. The film is an intriguing journey through a post-rape mind that has been hypnotized to forget. The protagonist Liz, is played by a talented young actress, and gives us an interesting character to follow during the film. The concept is brilliant. Cohen, (the writer/director) has done his job in creating a believable and realistic yet somehow surreal world in which to tell his story.

An odd one to call. This film has so many strengths in so many areas, but as a whole, something about it just doesn't gel with me. Odd. I did enjoy watching it though, so give it an 8/10.

Seriously. 13 votes and this thing has a rating of 7.5? That's what happens when the director and producers are allowed to vote on their own product. Although in a forum like this I guess that's impossible to police. I won't dignify this piece of trash with any more time - I just needed to provide a Public Service Announcement. DON'T SEE THIS FILM!!! PLEASE!! Even if mere grade school amateurs has made this film, you'd still be hard pressed to smile and lie to them about their chances of making it to Hollywood. .............oh dear lord - IMDb requires a minimum ten lines of text. I'll just blather on for a bit now so I can meet their quota. Blah Blah Blah Blah Blah. There. And I guarantee you that this review was less painful than the film it's about.

Although I only saw the rough cut, I sat glued to the screen through all 120 minutes and felt that I was witnessing the story first hand. The movie drew you in and evoked the correct emotions at the right time. If this does not get any award nominations, I will be greatly surprised.

I was impressed by the acting performed from both the seasoned actors and the relative new-comers to the screen. I am looking forward to seeing more of this writer / director's works in the future. It was one of the best movies I have seen for years.