Braid

I watched this at home on DVD from my public library. I first read several user reviews and they are scattered all over the place so the only way to know for sure was to see it.

The summary on its IMdb page pretty well summarizes it, "Two wanted women decide to rob their wealthy psychotic friend who lives in the fantasy world they created as children; to take the money they have to take part in a deadly perverse game of make believe."

The two "wanted" friends were dealing drugs, lost about $80,000 worth in a police raid and now they are on the run. Both from the cops and from their drug supplier.

I see the writer/director is Italian, maybe that partly explains why it is so unusual, the relationships, the dreamlike aspect of some scenes. Frankly I didn't find it to be a very good movie, I was never invested in the characters and what they were doing didn't make a lot of sense. I'm glad I watched it, I enjoy seeing experimental movies here and there, but my opinion is most viewers will NOT find it a rewarding experience.

Petula and Tilda, two small time drug dealers, go on the run and decide to stop off at the isolated estate of their childhood friend, Daphne. Daphne's seclusion has turned her into a dangerous psychotic who insists on playing childish games all day long and, if Petula and Tilda don't want to get caught, they'll have to play along.

More of an exercise in style and shock over substance, Braid is a daring and often confounding indie horror/thriller. Madeline Brewer steals the entire film as Daphne, finding just the right balance between terror, camp, and pathos. It's an excellent performance and Braid is worth seeing for that alone.

The cinematography is gorgeous and the filmmakers use the crumbling mansion location to great effect. Pacing never drags much either which is surprising given that the majority of the film is a chamber piece between three characters and it's mostly confined to one location. In that sense, it feels much more like some long lost regional horror relic from the 70's, using whatever it has available to tell its story.

The script could stand to be tighter and it leaves us with maybe a few too many unanswered questions, but the experience of Braid as a whole is well worth your time.

Two of the thirteen reviews so far have a ten star rating. I'll let you guess how many other reviews those two people wrote. None! There is no chance in hell that somebody not involved in this movie would score it a perfect score, or maybe if you're very easily pleased and have no clue about other real gems. Braid starts promising, with good filming shots so I can't blame the director for that, but the more the movie advances the lesser the quality. It's just badly written, not interesting at all, and the final twenty minutes I just lost all interest as it became just a mess. Don't waste your time on this boring story.

I nearly gave this a 4 because I really didn't enjoy it but opted on 5 in the end as that doesn't reflect it is at least a solid piece of film making.

In brief: three girls in a house, two of which are there to get paid, for playing along with the hostesses odd fetishes and fantasies. Not all is as it seems ... but for whom?

It takes quite a while to get to the point and is hoping to wow the audience with some innovative plot turns late in the day, which might work for you but I didn't really get much out of it.

However, if you're happy with its style and enjoy the off-beat characters, you might find this film a pretty satisfying watch. Unfortunately, that was not the case for me and its lack of an evolving plot left it feeling like a stuck-record.

This is my second viewing of the film. I will simply say that there are a mountain of highly negative reviews here, which inspired me to comment. If "Braid" (now titled as "Dying to Play") ain't your cup of brew, so be it. Feel free to dislike it. But to simply say "it made no sense" or to point out multiple plot holes is to lazily ignore what is going on.

A single example: what might appear to be bad film-making (a bloody, scarred knee appearing in the next frame as totally healed), is in service of the larger purpose at work here: the blurring of reality, role-playing and the consequences of resigning oneself to a world of fantasy.

As for the "point" of this film: This really is a movie where the camera controls the plot. The jumpy, cinematic shots control the text, and do so in a manner that is much more careful than its seemingly haphazard style would suggest. After all, this is on its face a movie about a game that three girls created as children- here, repeated as adults. The point, then, concerns the creation of a fantasy world (whether through drugs, the Game, acting, wealth etc.) and the repetition and phantasmagoric dysfunction that this bubble world of safety ends up creating. Put another way, the Fellini, Lynch, Argento touches serve a narrative that is purposefully disjointed and fragmented: each of the primary characters plays "the Game;" but only one of them really attempts to make it out . . . Again and again in almost circular fashion.

While this movie certainly has its flaws, it is quite ambitious. I do think it is the sort of film that fares better on a second viewing.