Sum of Existence

Director/Writer Jon Cohen really tried to produce a good film, and did so with flying colours. Elizabeth Murphy(portrayed by Australian actress-Brooke Anderson) is very believable, she is just like every 16/17 year old, with a twist. Brooke "Mikey" Anderson brings Liz to life, you can really believe what is going on. While I was watching this movie, I could hear myself thinking what you would think if you were there. Its amazing what a bit of effort and determination will do when it comes to making a movie. Congratulations must go out to Jon Cohen, Tim Maddocks, Brooke Anderson and the rest of the crew involved. Lets hope the team does another Australian film soon!

"Sum of existence" is amateurish: amateurish acting, scripting and direction. I came across this film on TV one night and assumed it to be either an acting school's end of year film, or someone's private project. I watched it in disbelief that a, it had been made and b, it was being shown on free-to-air television. When I discovered it was backed with government money and all involved were allegedly professional, I was shocked. It is a poor attempt at a thriller, with clichéd situations. I can find nothing to recommend in this film. It is an embarrassment to the Australian film industry. The industry here is notoriously underfunded and it makes me angry that money should have been spent on this schlock. All those who were involved in funding and making it should have a good long hard look at themselves.

they say that the sum of a films parts shouldn't equal more than it's whole. This is true with Sum of Existence. It has amazingly strong acting, strong story line, strong characters, strong direction, strong photography, but something about it doesn't quite fit.

It could be the edit. The film is an intriguing journey through a post-rape mind that has been hypnotized to forget. The protagonist Liz, is played by a talented young actress, and gives us an interesting character to follow during the film. The concept is brilliant. Cohen, (the writer/director) has done his job in creating a believable and realistic yet somehow surreal world in which to tell his story.

An odd one to call. This film has so many strengths in so many areas, but as a whole, something about it just doesn't gel with me. Odd. I did enjoy watching it though, so give it an 8/10.

I saw this movie. It was OK.

there were some incredibly strong performances from the actors, particularly from the girls who played Liz and Michelle. i found some of the other leads to be a bit over the top, some were a bit wooden, but overall the acting was one of the stronger points. the concept was interesting but wandered a little at times, at other times skimming over things which seemed like they deserved more attention.

it was difficult to really empathize with either of the female protagonists (the teenage girl or the psychiatrist)- mostly because their characters seemed to almost be fighting over which one was the focus of the main story. because of this they both came off a bit cold, something which may have been solved by their relationship with each other but wasn't. in their scenes together Juliet (the shrink) came off as patronizing and superficial, and the girl as a result just came off like a whiny brat (which considering she's recovering from a savage attack seems pretty damn harsh). there were other characters and sub-plots which could have brought a more human element to both these characters: Juliet had an ex-boyfriend character who was a rape counselor, any and all warmth about her character came from their relationship. unfortunately for her he was only in a couple of scenes (which also seemed strange considering his character was pretty much imperative to the whole story). he was one of the film's only completely sympathetic characters, had the potential to link Liz's family and Juliet on a more personal level but didn't. instead there was scene after scene of the parents fighting with each other which just distracted from the main story and made their characters seem cold and selfish. Liz had a best friend Michelle who spent most of the film going through an emotional crisis/ethical dilemma. the actress in this role delivered a notably convincing performance but the character just sort of added to the heaviness of the plot. there was a definite opportunity to balance this (which i can only assume was cut from the film for god knows what reason): they had a third friend who was a goth (the only teenage girl that didn't have blonde hair?) who for some reason was only there for the beginning and the end of the film. she was clearly supposed to be best friends with Liz and Michelle, it was set up that these 3 were being constantly verbally (albeit lamely) abused by the "popular girls" but that their strong friendship bond prevented the bitchiness from affecting them. why was she not around while Liz spent most of the film in a violent mental/emotional struggle and Michelle spent most of the film in tears? some of the other characters just blended in as part of the backdrop, such as the crazies in the psych ward, the bitchy girls, the nurses etc, probably their scenes could have been minimized as much of their interaction was unnecessary.

there were a couple of plot holes which was frustrating, it did seem as though there was little communication between the director/writer and the editor and some of the shots were weird and slightly inappropriate (stuff like characters cut off the edge of a shot for an entire scene... if they're there why can i only see their arm?). it ran too long (which i think is pretty standard fare for a writer/director debut)- some scenes dragged, some probably should have been cut. the music was really repetitive and often completely inappropriate. the dark mood probably would have been more balanced with a greater diversity of music- the only music was the score (apparently they lived in a suburb with no radio stations?) which was all based around a sombre piano that came in suddenly and forebodingly no matter what the scene.

there were some great elements in the film, there were also many things overlooked. brings up some interesting points but doesn't follow all of them through. the acting is good, if you can get past the urge to punch the characters for all being total downers. not a movie to cheer you up if you're feeling blue. might have made a great TV show.

I would like to add some balance to th previous "review" in whom was a little on the harsh side.

SUM OF EXISTENCE was shot on digital beta (I bothered to ask what it was shot on) so having some limited knowledge of the film making process and how something that was shot as a "telemovie" would translate onto the big screen, I understood the look the film had when it was translated to the "big screen".

JD COHEN (writer, director and producer) has produced a worth while film for his maiden voyage into the film industry. While it was shot on an almost "shoe string budget", he and his team did a fine job for their first feature film. I certainly believe it was better than most directorial debuts I have seen over the years.

As for the person picking the "plot holes" in the script, well hey, welcome to the world of film making. I would certainly like to see some films of his or hers that DO NOT have plot holes (when thinking of plot holes, let us not forget a certain big budget sci-fi in which the world was saved when we uploaded a computer virus in an ALIEN computer .... and we think that windows and mac have compatibility problems ... HA!).

SUM OF EXISTENCE was well acted and well directed in my humble opinion (especially when the very small if not non-existent budget is taken into account!). This opinion I "qualify" as an indie film maker myself.

Above all things, the most important aspect to consider is that JD COHEN and the team have GOT OUT THERE AND DONE THE THING !!! Many plan to shoot something, won't try for funding and winge and moan about the state of our film industry in this country (which admittedly isn't all that good!!!), then they will have a dig at someone and their team that HAS GONE OUT THERE and MADE THE FILM.

Kudos to JD COHEN, TIM MADDOCKS and the rest of the team.

Kudos to SUM OF EXISTENCE.

Lets see more people willing to take a chance and get out there.

PS. I have been in contact with both JD and Tim since the screening, both are in planning and negotiations for their next respective films ... with substantial budgets .... so there's another reason for us all to get off our butts and make our films ... after all you never know where that project will take you