madsbs

This picture is thought provoking, but not too interesting when first you shake off the tense mood of the movie created by an extensive use of hand-held, non-focus/focus combinations, close-ups, intense darkness, cold whiteness and sparse saturation.

It sets out in an frozen, timeless universe of the deep mountains, an isolated place, the only connection to a possible outside world (never exposed) being a lake.

Form the beginning the movie makes itself prone to numerous sorts of psychoanalytical interpretation frames (and, indeed, to possibilities for over-interpretation): the fight of the super-ego against ego and id, liberation of the id, completion of the sexual self, mother complexes, father complexes, and so forth.

This psychological is not necessarily a strength, but possibly a necessity for the plot to work. We are talking topics like quasi-incestuous relations, possible schizophrenia, the fear of the unknown ways of adult life and so on.

Altogether, this movie is overloaded with symbolic possibilities, but the cinematic work is excellently simplistic. For those who have the patience to take in the seriously slow pace of the film, it is well worth the inevitable annoyance.

This is an odd film. I like it, and still I can't think of it as a masterpiece.

At first glance, the picture may seem annoyingly pretentious due to its very original picture composition.

And in some ways it IS annoying. But the amazing thing is: it works pretty well. It really does compose the delicate, mysterious tune, which is the nerve of this fine movie.

Some people might think that The Tracey Fragments would benefit from a more explicit epic narrative. But the artistic mist is also the movie's strength, and I certainly did enjoy this mystery. So, give it a chance even if you're a bit amazed by all the flashing frames. It's actually possible to follow the storyline, even if the intentional non-clarity of this flick is not mastered completely.

Having said all that: Ellen Page as Tracey is a very very good choice!

When I decided to go and watch this I expected a Ken Loach movie. Unfortunately these 130+ minutes didn't bring about any surprises - I would've loved to leave the chair with a sense that Loach is not always just Loach.

To summarize the reasons for this: This is not the greatest of stories. The characters and their interrelations are not allowed to fully develop, and therefore it doesn't really get to your heart. At least it didn't get to mine.

Anyway this shot deserves its six points for its tight composition and fine acting.

Well. Maybe I just expected a great deal more from a Palm D'Or winner.