Suspension of Disbelief

I will normally sit and watch a picture that may have a director attempting a novel treatment. I can usually interpret what is going on - I do watch silent pictures.

In this picture I vainly tried to work out what was going on, who was what and where was whom. All to no avail.

In the end I gave up after about half an hour - I was becoming bored and restless.

I do wish that some people making pictures would realise that their audiences go to pictures to be entertained and pay good money for this.

After watching this load of cods-wallop, my first thought was to send an invoice to the director to compensate me for my time in having to sit through it.

I liked it pretty well.

You have to put yourself in mind that what you are watching is a sort of film noir, with a beat score ... jazz from the 50's. In this movie, director Figgis may be working out some of the themes he runs into in his everyday cinematic life. But what seems most to be going on is an exploration of the possibilities in each of us. The movie is rather existential, which perhaps fits with the beat mantra, the era from which, born in 1948, the director himself sprang.

Realize that you are watching an art film, but one that makes a little more sense than David Lynch's Mulholland Drive or some of Terence Malick's self-conscious work. I found the ending a bit silly, and I began to expect a different denouement, one that would have been darker, perhaps with a twist. But the movie doesn't really leave you hanging to work out your own ending quite as much as so many modern movies do, and which the main character, a screenwriter and part-time screen writing teacher, says is okay because "life doesn't have a pat ending," to paraphrase. The ending even had a little of the Casablanca about it ... boy, I'm really mixing homages here. This movie probably won't go down in the pantheon of greats like Casablanca, but it was a nice effort; sort of an indulgent one, as the attitude the screenwriter takes toward the up-and-coming generation seems to be. But the screenwriter hasn't lost his touch, may even be more attuned than those coming up behind. Plus, Sebastian Koch is pretty nice to look at.

I saw this during a screening in Prince Charles Cinema in Leicester Square. I will confess that I don't normally watch independent movies and have no idea about the director's previous work. I wasn't expecting much. The shots, lighting and environment were pretty good, the editing was good too. Considering the limited budget and that they made this movie in 22 days I think the movie is pretty good. But having said that if I judge this movie neutrally I would say it's an average plus. The plot resolves around a death of a pretty (and lost?) girl. The whole plot resolves around this and sometimes becomes too boring and lagging. The director has tried hard to make this like an art movie but sometimes the artistic expressions don't make any sense. There is some nudity and sex in the movie but they are neither erotic, not do their presence contribute to the movie in any way so I don't see the point of having those. It feels like they just wanted some skin in the movie. Still the movie is enjoyable. The major complain I have about this movie is that it does not give you a satisfactory ending or a proper ending with answers. I really dislike open ended movies that leave the conclusion to the viewers and if you are like me you will not like the ending too.

For the ones who think they never heard of the director Mike Figgis, I will remind you of "Leaving Las Vegas". Yes that director!

I have been a fan of Mike Figgis since 1988 when he wrote and directed Stormy Monday and I really enjoyed Liebestraum and The Loss of Sexual Innocence. Not all his movies are "Hollywood" type like Leaving Las Vegas and it takes an acquired taste and thinking outside the box to appreciate some of his work.

Suspension of Disbelief is one that's not for the people who like straight forward movie. It's a story of a man who writes movie scenarios and happens to write one that involves us with this movie ("Participation Mystique") because he is writing the scenario for the movie we are watching and Mr. Mike Figgis does an excellent job with this concept.

The story takes us to different parts of this man's life, such as the world of his daughter who, within this movie, is a starting actress in another movie; the fact that there is a death (murder or accident?) which involves few people, and so on … (I don't want to spoil it for you). This movie takes you in different directions and still revolves around the same characters.

I personally enjoyed it because it's really close to what life is all about: A lot of things are happening at the same time and you don't know which one is the most important until you think about your personal life and understand that all of them are important. Your day to day life is not just a story within the same theme. After all, you are the story of your life!

If you expect a packaged ending to this movie, you will be disappointed but if you understand that you are the continuity to this film and understand that you, through your thinking, are supposed to draw your own conclusions for an ending, it will leave you interested even when the movie is over.

"Suspension of Disbelief" never suspends ours. Figgis fans will recognize many delightful Figgis narrative and cinematographic tropes, but sorely lacking is any narrative lure, any reason to keep watching. The film has ellipsis and mystery, but does not reward the viewer for countenancing those. At times the story elaboration is positively dreary. Even this film's meta-film leitmotif cannot salvage it. The film struggles with a paucity of narrative richness, and is devoid of the incandescent impending gleam so often to be found in Figgis's other films, most of which are marvelous. This flop is the exception that proves the rule that Figgis is Britain's best auteur.