Empty Spaces

This movie is awesome. Dude gets divorced so he takes out his life savings and buries it in the woods where his ex-wife can't get her hands on it. That's just good economics. It's smart is what it is. Maybe you think its boring but if you don't like it your stupid. Figure it out. Its not a fast-paced rollercoaster but more of a slow, sinister ride that can still be just as fun and its a nice change of pace for once. Movies don't need to all be the same and this one proves that. Its an observation of one man's life and we see everything through that lens so that we pick up on the subtle details without being delivered all the information directly. Do we love this guy or do we hate him? I found myself on both sides of the equation at different points in the film, although I'm not really sure if weather we are meant to sympathize. Maybe we're just meant to watch and observe and make up our own mind and enjoy the ride! Toodles.

OK, so I will get this out of way and say that yes, this film does have some audio issues, but they are small and forgivable, and so did "Come and See," which is nonetheless considered a masterpiece. So we can move past that. Now, very often I overhear people talking about a film with a heart, which is to say that it moved them in some way. Well "Empty Spaces" is a film with a brain like no other that I've seen in a long time. It does not dumb anything down for the audience, but at the same time it tells a simple story. The brothers don't call each other "brother," and if we don't figure it out on our own then we simply don't figure it out. Nothing gained, nothing lost, just as it should be. And yet the plot is so simple, in fact, that it turns out to be exceedingly clever in its simplicity. It pulls no punches, as the saying goes. Unfortunately, I do not believe that many other viewers, not ever those who enjoyed this film, understood its entire meaning. It is such a unique viewing experience that most were undoubtedly caught up in the novelty of the thing. Truly, the director never cuts away from the action (or inaction) of the main character, when literally any other director would. It may come across as slow or boring to some, but it is in fact hypnotic. There is so much subtext in what is left unsaid. I have seen this film three times, and each time it is a different film, because each time I pick up on something new. It is truly fascinating.

I watched two films this weekend. One was Empty Spaces and the other was a film called Frozen (not the animated Disney film, but the 2010 thriller about three skiers stuck on a chair lift). Neither film was particularly good, but they both did one thing very well, and that was their use and handling of dramatic tension.

The two films took very different approaches to this aspect of their stories, which is why they make excellent partners for comparing and contrasting. On the one hand, Frozen showed us three characters trapped in a claustrophobic setting in a life-or-death situation. There were a ton of obvious dramatic elements at play: what if they fall? What if they freeze to death? The fact that they spend most of the film on a ski might make you think that you'd get bored pretty quickly, but the filmmakers made up for the one tiny location by packing the bulk of the film with sheer edge-of-your-seat tension. It's one thing after the next, and it's very well done because it is very realistic. It works, because we know it could happen in real life. It's like Open Water in that respect. But while that film failed because it really was boring, this one succeeds by handling the tension and the drama infinitely better. Perhaps the filmmakers here studied the earlier film and learned from its mistakes. Kudos on them if they did.

Empty Spaces, on the other hand, took a somewhat opposite approach. It too gave us a handful of characters in a dramatic situation. But while Frozen gave us upfront, in-your-face tension, Empty Spaces provides instead a sort of slow-burning tension. Unlike Frozen's life-or-death scenario, Empty Spaces presents an emotional scenario of a man at a crossroads in his life after his wife leaves him and their daughters. It's filled with emotional tension throughout, but at the start of the film it is barely apparent. We're not given all the details about the situation, but instead we're shown these characters in their life, and slowly things begin to unravel and certain things come to light. We see the tension slowly build, and like in Frozen we can't look away. Here too the tension is very realistic and very well done.

Neither approach is entirely original, but both are rare birds these days, so it was nice to see these films, and back-to-back no less. I got lucky, having happened upon them both by chance. Overall, however, no one will ever call either of these films a masterpiece. Both suffer from the innate shortfalls of their small budgets (amateur actors, limited locations, and technical constraints).

I had a unique viewing experience, as I couldn't help but compare these two films, having watched them so close together. In doing so, I was better able to more easily pick up on the things that they did so well. If I had seen the films by themselves, I don't know if I would have appreciated them as much. If you're so inclined, I recommend viewing these two as a double feature.

Thanks for reading!

Actually, I was not expecting to like this one as much as I did. It is a very low budget drama with only a few actors, but it is well done for what it is. There are no gimmicks here, just good old fashioned storytelling.

It is the story of a man who is dealing with a bit of a crisis in his life. At first, I kept waiting for something major to happen, but I realized pretty quickly that this was not that find of film. Instead, we get a glimpse into the real life of this man and those around him. It feels like a documentary at times, and its strength is in its simplicity.

The acting is pretty good for the most part, although there are moments when it is not so great. Some of the best acting actually comes from the two child actors, strangely enough. The film feels slow at moments, but overall it's really good and I liked it a lot. Some people will undoubtedly find it boring, so consider yourselves warned.

My girlfriend watched this movie when she went to visit her sister and she was confused by it. She couldn't figure out for the love of her life why the man took so much money out of his ATM account and then went and buried it and neither could her sister. They were baffled by it, but when she explained the movie to me I knew right away why he had done it without even having to see it. I told her my theory and she didn't believe me but then I watched the movie for myself and my suspicions were confirmed. He did it because he didn't want his wife to get the money! It is so obvious! My girlfriend said that it doesn't explain it in the movie but it really does! He goes and buries the money and then afterwards he tells his friend that he has split up with his wife and she spends all his money on stupid things and he is going around trying to get his life in order. He doesn't come right out and say that he went and buried the money because of that but I know that is the reason why he did it. Maybe it's just something that women can't understand because my girlfriend couldn't figure it out and neither could her sister but I did.