Nostalgia

One of the few films that have hit me so hard recently. It's as if the writers reached into my brain and heart. I had Such a visceral reaction. Excellent performances by a superior group of actors. I'd give a 20 if I could!

It was interesting, quite atmospheric sometimes, sometimes it were just tries. Bad title, "Nostalgia" make me to expect something much deeper, more atmospheric, more nostalgic. Simply title is too direct. In Lodz Film School students make short movies excercises for this kind of inspiring words like "Love" etc. I have seen some of them in school cinema. Maybe some more shallow title could be better, like "Things" for example. It's great example that title can be so important for impression of movie.

Could this have been one of the year's most promising off-beat movies? There's much style to be admired, with a good deal of thoughtful dialogue delivered by a cast of impressive performers. So what went wrong? Right from the opening it has the power to draw you in - giving you good reasons to be interested in each introduced character. You actually can't help becoming emotionally involved in their varied situations - you want to feel for them, and hope for the best outcomes as you learn more about their stories. John Oritz might arguably own the movies most interesting character as insurance assessor Daniel Kalman but, there are many good characters and performances introduced as the story/stories continue to unfold. This is possibly where it begins to unravel - it strives for one too many sombre situations, becoming like one of those seventies French dramas - where for one reason or other everyone seems to die. Its heart is in the right place but it's so unrelenting the viewer starts to seek some relief or simply to go back to the beginning and learn more about the earlier characters - who are never heard of again.

There are some interesting observations examining the value we tend to place on 'things', be they photos or artefacts gathered, as we journey through life. The stories have an odd linking device that doesn't work as well as it should, creating an overall episodic feel. Direction, writing style, photography, impressive cast, and thoughtful music score almost save it but fold under the weight of unrelenting loss. Pity, the screen needs more movies with emotional feelings - if only this picture didn't strive to serve up so much in one sitting.

Very slow-paced, cerebral, and melancholic movie that centers on the artifacts and objects we accumulate over our lifetime that contain so many memories of the lives we've led. They usually come to the forefront when we lose loved ones, have a tragedy such as a fire or natural disaster occur, or simply decide to pick up and move.

About 2/3rds of the way through the film a sudden tragedy occurs which sends the movie into even more of a depressive dive. There is a most solid cast here, with varying amounts of screen time, but the movie never seems to coalesce into the dramatic effect that the filmmakers intended

A beautifully adapted story illustrating the joy and pain of nostalgia (in all its forms) and how it impacts on the lives of the characters we are introduced to in the movie. But it's much more than that. The movie is a work of art. The performances are believable. The screenplay is spot on and the soundtrack is sublime. What a pleasure.