Back home

"The Myth of Fingerprints" promises reality and the audience is in fact confronted with a wave of honest, hurting, wonderful, banal, outstanding and intense situations. Everything turns out to be the pure essence of life. During the whole movie the spectator is looking for an extra-ordinary action that makes sure that "The Myth of Fingerprints" is a film, a visualized story, an artificial product but the expectations are again and again reduced to absurdity. Because life doesn't mean to immediately commit suicide when something does go wrong, real life is far away from having responses to all asked questions. Life is often quiet and simple with some beautiful, warm and grand moments. "The Myth of Fingerprints" is life projected to the screen: authentic and beautifully simple. The cast is brilliant and Julianne Moore, as always, gives a wonderful performance showing the versatility of a disillusioned character that though is still desperately looking for love, sympathy and understanding. 9/10

As those who can personally relate to this story well understand, not all stories about damaged families can have resolution and closure. The Myth of Fingerprints is quite honest in that regard. The story provides some explanation of what happened but not why, much like real life. What we do get is richly painted characters provided by strong performances, good writing, and good direction who tell us their story and allow us to draw our own conclusions. It's well worth the effort for those who appreciate a drama that doesn't take short cuts and permits the characters to tell their own stories instead of spoon feeding the audience and neatly wrapping everything up like an unwanted birthday present.

I didn't know a thing about this movie until I rented it last night. After it ended, my wife said, "What was the point of that? It's like there was a hidden camera in somebody's house, but there was nothing interesting for the hidden camera to see." That was the problem with "The Myth of Fingerprints": we watched a group of uninteresting characters not do anything interesting for an hour-and-a-half.

Here are our characters.

1. DAD (Roy Scheider) - Dull and silent. When drunk, acts drunk.

2. MOM (Blythe Danner) - Acts like a mom.

3. BIG SISTER (Julianne Moore) - Bitter and annoying. And bitter. A completely unpleasant character...but not even interestingly unpleasant. Just bitter.

4. BIG BROTHER (Noah Wylie) - Cute and bland. Broke up with GIRLFRIEND and acts depressed until he gets back together with her.

5. LITTLE SISTER - Cute, perky, and bland.

6. LITTLE BROTHER - Doesn't do anything. Don't know why he's in the script at all, except as an excuse to write his cute, perky, and bland GIRLFRIEND into the movie.

7. BIG SISTER'S HUSBAND (or maybe BOYFRIEND) - Cute and bland. Bickers with insufferable BIG SISTER.

Well, that's our cast. What do they do? Get together for Thanksgiving and spend a few dinners together, then go home. Meanwhile, the big "conflicts" in the plot include:

1. BIG SISTER acts like a jerk and annoys everyone (including the audience).

2. BIG BROTHER finds out that GIRLFRIEND broke up with him because DAD acted drunk some time ago.

3. All characters search for something to say and do to fill up the screen time, but fail, mostly.

Well, that's our plot. Not much conflict, not much character development. Suddenly, the screen fades to black, then the credits roll. I can't recall a time when I felt LESS involved in a movie than this one. What was the point? To show how bland a family Thanksgiving dinner can be? If that was the goal, then the movie accomplished it, with flying colors.

Thanksgiving is that time of the year loved by movie makers as it presents an opportunity to bring together families, even dysfunctional ones. Bert Freundlich sets "The Myth of the Fingerprints" in such a setting. We saw the film it during its initial release, we thought it was a good effort for a young man starting his career in films. On second viewing, the other night, the film, although enjoyable, did not have the same effect as when it made its debut.

First of all, some of the relationships don't ring true. That is the case of Mia, the oldest of the girls. We watch as she and Elliott arrive by train while they are involved in a quickie before getting home. This action of being seen in public in such a compromising position, is completely out of character with the Mia we get to see in the scenes that follow. Right after they get to the family home, we get the impression these two are as compatible as oil and vinegar. What is she trying to prove? She goes into town with an attitude of a city slicker, when she meets Cezanne. She reacquaints herself with the boy that had a crush on her, but she has erased from her mind, to the point of appearing this guy was from Mars. This, we didn't buy. Her eventual involvement with Cezanne is something Mia, who hates the rural setting of her youth just doesn't make sense after her haughty demeanor and city ways.

Then there is Warren. He still pines after the loss of Daphne, the beautiful former girlfriend who comes to see him when he gets home. Daphne obviously has not stopped loving Warren, but there is an incident that happened some time before during a party. When she tells Warren about it, it becomes plain he had witnessed the incident, but didn't do anything to stop it from happening.

The seemingly contented parents are also a puzzle. The father, Jake, is an enigma. He is a taciturn man who doesn't interact with his children well. Lena, the mother, seems to know much more than what she led us to believe about her marriage and her relation with Jake.

The acting, in general, is good, no small feat to achieve by someone without much experience under his belt, but Mr. Freundlich succeeds in getting some inspired appearances, especially from Noah Wyle and Julianne Moore. The cast is young and do ensemble work. Hope Davis, Blythe Danner, Arija Baeikis, Michael Vartan, are seen among the supporting cast.

Bart Freundlich showed a promise with this film, and has continued to be among our best young directors since this effort.

Working within a tired construct, this movie puts stereotypes and almost-characters in painfully self-conscious "real-life" situations within which they ape human reactions. Although the plot is reliant upon a buildup of tension, no such progression comes, and nothing changes for any of the (mostly inexplicably) bitter characters who congregate in the family home for a supposedly revealing and explosive holiday reunion. This profoundly irritating story is clumsily written, poorly shot and populated by dull, unsympathetic and self-involved characters. Its 90 minutes felt like days.