Chained for Life

Don't know much about film production. However, this one was quite hard to differentiate between reality, documentary and real acting. Was about to skip it. Insanely brilliant!

This must have been an immensely enjoyable film to make, once they'd worked out what piece of cinema or film they were actually trying to conjure - a little bit all over the place, to say the least, but as original a proposition as you've likely encountered for some time - with the main premise established on cultural prejudice and discrimination to difference. It uses those who lack the symmetry of societal expectations of beauty, by several standard deviations in this case, to reaffirm that differences are only skin deep but those physical attributes are shackled to the individuals psychology, as well as societal norms, whose end result is to imprison them without bars for most, if not all of their lives - akin to living in an open prison or asylum for a crime or crimes you didn't commit.

One review had remarked on the movie being a puzzler about many layers of frames competing. I think the meta-cleverness of the movie being within layers upon layers makes it hard to watch, but that it also resonates long after in the same way Memento does. You have to really think about how it all fits together and what it is saying.

A movie about making a movie, and more.

One of our two main characters has the genetic disorder - neurofibromatosis. So, kudos to both, Pearson & Weixler, for their commitment & skill in presenting a thoughtful script.

Movie statements: "Disfigurement - they taunt me and beg me to show my face. Only so that when I do, they turn away in horror." "Do we long for beauty because we seek order & symmetry?"

MY thoughts: One thematic goal was reducing stereotyping in film. Another theme was - should a disabled or disfigured character be played by a non ... Yet, oddly, in this film, the Siamese twins portrayed were not joined; just twins. Another theme - is it vanity putting on make-up to feel pretty? Still another (and I really question) - "Actors that are beautiful have a greater range of expressiveness which gives them more opportunities, and we love to look at them."

Where MASK and ELEPHANT MAN were predictable, feel good movies, this one, like Todd Browning's FREAKS, really gets close to reality. The movie blurs the difference between documentary and fiction in unsettling ways.