Be with Me

A rewarding experience, albeit one that seems at least 30 minutes longer than it actually is. The slow buildup is for the most part careful foundation building for the second half of the film, a rarity in Singaporean film and a testament to Khoo's ever-growing maturity as a filmmaker and controller of pace, although when that second half comes, it feels like a jarring switch not unlike the one pulled by David Lynch in the middle of his 1997 film, Lost Highway. The signs are present that Khoo worked to bridge the discontinuity of the 3 stories and the order in which they are presented (foreshadowing and foregrounding of certain recurring visual images), but the fact that he does not perfectly succeed is of little detriment to the final product.

It is a well-made movie consisting of one strong tale of strength, recovery, and the beauty of love bookended by two other stories that would have benefited from being drawn as their own entities and stood up and apart from the central story of the blind and deaf Theresa Chan (pretty much Singapore's own Helen Keller). Instead, they try to conform to the model of sparse dialogue and psychostylistic sense-deprivation that serves that story so well - the result being that they appear unevenly matched. Still, a fine film.

(previously posted at 1minreview.com)