An Oversimplification of Her Beauty

I saw this film as part of the Rotterdam Film Festival 2012 with mixed results. On the positive side: Powerful visuals, accompanied by an even so powerful sound track. On the negative side: Mixing cartoons (3/4 of the time??) and "normal" film is intriguing, leaving me unsure whether I hate it or love it. Halfway negative: Some meta jokes and stories, especially those in the beginning, contained some bright ideas, but they tend to wear a bit thin after a few repeats.

Overall, I found the film chronologically confusing. This may be intentional, given the quote "Love is confusing time wise". The order of the scenes reflects that statement exactly.

What I missed most is that we do not get the chance to really know the two main characters: what do they do, their interests/hobbies, and their purpose in life?? Probably I'm too rational in this, since love does not care for such trivialities (not my words). But still, I consider it a defect. I can accept that I'm alone in this, deemed overly rational by everyone I know. Anyway, it was the reason that I failed to get involved.

The Q&A after the screening was very enlightening. We learned that actually writing the script only took a few hours. The real effort was put in the editing, in order to reduce many hours of footage to only 90 minutes. He dropped scenes he considered "too long" (very logical) plus some with less clothes on (otherwise people would wonder what was going on, distracting from the actual contents). The long production time, around 8 years, was caused by other obligations, like finishing school.

There really is a very good movie to be made from the film that's here. I'm not sure how long that film would be, but probably no more than half the length of the current film. In its current state, this is pretty much unwatchable. WAY too much repetition. The animation is very good. I was interested in the main character for the first 45 minutes or so. There is a lot of innovative stuff in the film and I thought it would be a wonderful film until about an hour into it, when I started to realize that this might be an interesting file to the filmmaker, but maybe not so much for others. But by the end, it was very hard to sit through.

The first thing that I want to say about this film is that I am always thrilled to see anyone that is local get to display their creativity to a wide range of viewers. The Oversimplification of Her Beauty was very insightful and left you feeling like you really learned something about relationships and how they may (or may not) evolve. I think that the relationship issues that were discussed in this film are very relatable and Nance did a great job of communicating them through various types of illustrations. The comedic aspect of the film kept the audience engaged and the animation (in its many forms) kept the audience wondering what the heck he will think of next. I really liked the analogy of the making of the bed and how similar it is to creating a relationship (wrong wood, bad evaluation, not everything fitting together, etc.). I thought that part of the film was brilliant. I think that movie fans that enjoy the more eclectic "off-the-beaten-path" movies would really enjoy this film. Every time the film would pause and restart, it was like you were getting to watch another short film and all the short films put together made for a maturing feature film. I want to say that I love the support that Nance received from his community and you could tell by some of the reactions in the theater that some of the folks on screen were very familiar to the audience. I think that as a Nance's debut film, he did an excellent job and I am excited to see what he will come up with next.

About 20 minutes in, I thought, "Well, this is interesting, but I'm not sure I want to sit through another hour of it." Yet, AN OVERSIMPLICATION of HER BEAUTY's subtle immersive qualities got the better of me, and I'm very glad that I did finish it. It's one of relatively few films that I'll probably watch again, start to finish, in the very near future.

AN OVERSIMPLICATION of HER BEAUTY begins as a mock-academic cause-effect examination of common everyday emotions. As Terence Nance humorously explains at the beginning, he adds the story of his in-and-out relationship with Namik Minter as a back-drop to give concrete detail and storyline to the original mini-film, "How Would You Feel?," which is included on the Special Features of the DVD, along with the 8-minute "Exorcising Rejection." {Both of the shorter films are well-worth watching on their own.} The mass of the film is narrated by Nance, but Minter also steps in with some valuable insights of her own.

This film reminds me a little of 2004's WHAT THE BLEEP DO WE KNOW!?, only it's more about psychology than physics. Like the earlier film, it also incorporates spiritual and metaphysical elements without any reaching or preaching. It alternates between everyday street scenes in NYC and animated dream and fantasy sequences which, along with being funny and entertaining, are quite breathtaking in a number of places. I must stress, however, that AN OVERSIMPLIFICATION of HER BEAUTY stands very much on its own. There is an exquisite imagination at work here, and the microcosmic view it affords us of universal ideas and situations makes it unique. In the end, the film is not just "all about" any one of its many subjects: love, human emotions, the rigors of everyday life, etc.

There are a number of ways that AN OVERSIMPLIFICATION of HER BEAUTY could have been messed up. It could have been overly artsy, but Nance's accessible, often self-effacing narration avoids that. He uses mostly everyday language--the quote I use as my title is an exception--and the more complex sentences help to enliven the points he makes. It could have been overly subjective, but the sober, good-natured distance that Nance and Minter keep while describing their own relationship makes it universally about human relations. It could have been just plain boring, but the frequent variations between reality and cartoons, excellent camera work, and unique style and nature of the entire film make it just plain mesmerizing. By necessity, it's rather plot less and fragmentary, and the latter qualities are sometimes a little TOO much so. Along with a few needless repetitions, the entire film just doesn't have an entirely complete feel to it, an aspect that many viewers will find quite dissatisfying. Nevertheless, I'm not sure how it could have been completed, and I can say with perfect sincerity that even its more amateurish qualities enhance the film's personality to a certain extent. Most importantly, its heavily analytical nature could have made it a real downer, but it's anything but that. I went away from this film feeling GOOD!

One way or another, AN OVERSIMPLIFICATION of HER BEAUTY deserves far more attention than it will likely receive.