Ficció

I'm still thinking about what did appeal Monica from Alex. He was one of the most boring characters I've ever seen in a movie (or in real life). He looks as if he was absolutely immune to any kind of joy in life, even though he's in the elected company of old loving friends, enjoying an incredible beautiful landscape, drinking wine and well prepared gin and tonics...nothing appeals to him enough to make him smile...what a jerk !!! The Catholic Critics Association has rated this movie very high....well I'm an atheist...sorry. The only nice thing about this movie is that depicts how different types of families we can find today out of the classical "nuclear" one.

That's what I felt while watching this film: why am I spending some time of my life with a guy I don't find interesting at all?

So he doesn't like his life. So he expected more from it. So he fancies the cute woman he meets. So what? And why do they fall in love? What is so great about them? They're thirty-something, they have cool professions(film director, violin player), they're healthy, they aren't that witty, he certainly isn't much fun being around, she's...nice. I think the actors did a pretty good job, considering they didn't have much to work with in the first place. But once more I found that common flaw in love stories: you don't get a sense of why the couple falls in love, other than because the script says so.

Early in the movie the director is asked about the screenplay he's writing. He proceeds to make a pitch of a film so boring and unappealing to me I would have run in the opposite direction rather than go and watch it. That's when I knew I was in trouble.

I really liked the previous film of this director. It was fresh and compelling, and full of interesting characters with all too real problems and desires. I didn't expect such a big disappointment with this film. It's getting great reviews, which probably means I simply didn't get it. I was bored silly during most of it's running time. I thought it was bloodless and spineless. It's supposed to be about those things that are never shown in films....for some reason, I'd dare say. Or maybe it's just a matter of taste.

I did like the last scene. Very much. It was a beautiful scene, well written, well acted, two thumbs up about it. I only wish the rest of the film deserved that last scene...

I don't rate very many films ten out of ten, but this one makes the cut. I felt clobbered coming out of the theatre at the Toronto Film Festival. For anyone who has ever experienced a love that cannot be, you will understand the language of this film. It's all in the glances, the smiles, the unspoken words between the lines of conversation. The actors bring their characters to life to the point that you feel as though you know these people.

Suffice it to say, Ficcion did it for me. And from the warm round of applause it received at the screening I attended, I suspect many others felt the same way. Hopefully it will find some success in a broader North American release.

Fiction is a deliberately slow-paced film about relationships. What is really honourable about the film is that it is not just about one-on-one type relationships but rather the larger picture encompassing family and friends. There is no doubt the Alex (?) (the protagonist, filmmaker) is passionately attracted to Monica (the violinist) as one learns much later on, however, that is not the point. There is a scene when the couple is hiking and she says to Alex, if your fictional characters were here (on this mountain top) right now what would they be doing? They would be lost in their own thoughts or world, he responds. And that is what this couple is about: they are attracted and feel extremely close, but their thoughts are preoccupied by their respective families. Alex and Monica are, and that is the central dialogue in the film, deeply invoked in their own relationships. Thus Gay makes it quite clear that life is multi-tiered and that there are consequences to unbridled passion. However, this reality does not preclude the possibility of desire and attraction. In other words the whole pace of the film is deliberate and reflects the inner feelings of the characters that are being worked out between themselves, through the other characters in the film and of course within the bucolic setting. Not a great film, but well worth the taking the time to watch and understand.

A director guy takes a leave-of-absence of his parental duties to visit some friends in the country and find the space and solitude to think about his new project. But then a violinist woman has had the same idea. The pair gets introduced by their acquaintances. A romance looks likely but...

This film deals with the urge of not having an affair given the chance. The quasi non-existent plot is linear through... and only in a very few places in the last 20 minutes you get a few chills of the uncomfortable state of denial in which the main character is installed.

Sensitively acted and transparently shot. To be enjoyed without pressure by moviegoers in their mid-thirties.