The Roads Not Taken

I don't want to give the story away other than to mention that it is impossible to follow, too slow in many parts, and that this probably worked better in the writer's head. Good actors, but....

You know when you sometimes play a movie without knowing anything about it? Well, that's the chance I took with "The Roads Not Taken" and it was a real surprise movie for me. Some days you are driven by emotions rather than logic. And this is a story that won't give you all the full answers, but will present puzzle pieces that you can connect upon reflection. There are three narratives that the filmmakers intercut between. Leaving it up to the viewer to interpret wether what you are seeing are partly dreams or memories. Javier Bardem plays the main character, and that man never seizes to amaze me. The way he changes the body language, the way he expresses a glimpse of life in his eyes - It's like he is playing three different characters all together in the three narratives. It's a performance that stroke me to the core since it reminded me so much of my grandfather. In some scenes completely mimicking him, which brought so many memories back to me. I understood the dilemma of the film and what it wanted to give a beautiful perspective to - Which almost broke me emotionally at the end.

I've been there next to a person who's wandered off in his mind and returning to be present in fragments. I would find myself asking "Where did you go? Have you been with us all day?". The questions were always left unanswered. Director and writer Sally Potter offers with this film a view into that mind. Perhaps giving you some answers and in earnest, a sense of hope. Also, this is the best acting I've seen from Elle Fanning. She truly impressed me. Her scenes with Bardem brought tears to me eyes. There was a strong connection that was performed beautifully by everyone involved. I'm so glad I took that chance and watched this movie. It gave peace to some unhealed thoughts I had looming in the back of my mind.

Not a typical everyday movie but has intense acting from the main characters. The screenplay was good in depicting the pain but not good in telling a great story that could have been told effortlessly

The story gives a face to dementia, a terrible illness. Here, we see Leo lost in his remembrances of the past in seemingly disjointed episodes. At one point, in his present, he says to Molly: wherever I go, I am there. This might be trite to a normal person but so profound to a man who's on the path of losing his mind. This is tragic because memories are one's truest treasures. What would our lives amount to without them to soothe us and talk to us.

The story also focuses on the indispensable role of the caregiver, preferably a close kin who patiently tries to see the world in the eyes of a beloved suffering from dementia. Elle Fanning portrays this role admirably without doubt.

Javier Bardem is such a versatile actor that not one scene in this movie is wasted. Selma Hayek provides a counterpoint playing a role at at time when Leo was a lot younger full of fire in his belly. She was the calming presence in younger Leo's troubled life.

This is a great work of writer/director Sally Potter. She's able to present the story in an understated albeit powerful way. We take notice.

Javier Bardem gives a terrific performance of a dementia patient, and Elle Fanning is really good as a daughter trying super hard to cope. It is a heart wrenching story, but the diversions are just very distracting. The subplot with Selma Hayek is just very confusing, I don't even know if it is a flashback or an alternate reality in the man's mind. Then the scenes involving the sea are confusing, and out of place as well. I don't really understand these parallel subplots.