Fim de Século

How would your life be different if you took a different relationship path? That's what gets explored in this poignant film.

The director and cinematographer use long, beautiful (and mostly silent) visual narratives to create a sense of isolation for the main character who has recently ended a 20 year relationship.

Using flashback/flashforward scenes, the film explores what happens when two men meet again after a hook up that took place 20 years prior.

In my humble discernment, the key to making sense of this movie and of its many twists and turns of time and the many ambiguities of the story lines, is that much of the story happens in Ocho's imagination.. If we assume the long, plodding initial scenes depicting Ocho's arrival in Barcelona are real, of his reacting to solitude and loneliness by listlessly wandering the streets, staring vacantly at nothing in particular, until he notices Javi in the plaza below and then later at the beach. At that point the story picks up and grows increasingly intricate and complicated. The ambiguity of the story, however, questions how much of the story actually happened and how much is just Ocho's imagination, just a continuation of his introspective mind through the preceding opening scenes up to that point. How much of the story is actual history and how much is fantasy? It's no surprise that Ocho's and Javi's appearance didn't change during 20 years, if in fact 20 years never went by except in Ocho's mind. Whether the details of the story are real or fantasized, this film tells a true story of the odyssey of a heart as a lonely hunter in quest of a loving human connection. A beautiful film.

It would be easy to criticize this first full-feature directorial effort. Not everything in this movie succeeds by a long-shot. The criticism that it's too slow and boring certainly applies to the first 15-20 minutes. It's rare when an 84-minute film should be cut by at least 5-7.

But the criticism that this is a "gay movie" is TOTALLY off-base. What makes this film worth watching is the enigmatic, non-linear story about love, partnership, loneliness, and the passage of time. The fact that the two principals are gay is actually irrelevant to who they are as people, and what "Ocho," the main character, is looking for.

Whether you leave the theater thinking wondering what is the true story (I must say no more), or thinking that it's all just a metaphor, the film is ultimately thought-provoking. After seeing a preview, my wife and I discussed it all through lunch and well beyond.

It is an outrage that two people of the same sex can get married and yet cannot buy this film. The UK censor has given it an 18 certificate. There is no criminality in this film, no drug abuse and simulated sex where no genitalia is visible. To me the simulation cannot be termed real sex and there is nothing in this film that would not pass for a 15 if it was aimed at a heterosexual audience. It is discrimination pure and simple. Now for the film. I watched it twice and the first time I found it tiresome. I was not keen on the actors who did not engage me, and I found that the beauty of the film visually got in the way of the characters. At that point I thought this is a 4 or 5 at most. The second time light dawned and I saw the subtle references to past, present and the tragedy of human alienation more clearly. The actors look ordinary, deliver the dialogue in an ordinary way and walk around a city ( Barcelona here ) in the way any of us would do. The fact that they look more or less the same despite 20 years difference was no problem. Even on a banal level some of us age slowly and do look more or less the same. The real revelation to me was how much this film resembles Antonioni's great film ' L'Eclisse '. Nearly 70 years ago this masterpiece with Alain Delon and Monica Vitti was the culmination of modernity and a shuffling off of the two world wars and the dread of another. Please viewers who know this film watch the ending and see the fire in a corner of the screen. Post Modern now we wait for another century and another 70 years of who knows what change and destruction. The two characters walk through memory and forgetting, just as Vitti and Delon did and as in ' L'Eclisse ' there is a wild dance in the middle which to me shows defiance as well as pleasure. Also watch out for the David Wojnarowicz book ' Close To The Knives ' ( Aids themed; defiantly so ) and the fears of one of the characters. No this is not a boring film, perhaps a little too fussily aesthetic for my taste, but a film that shows stages of History and our own history within it. The film cries out to be watched multiple times and if it has faults and most films have, then concentrate on the eternal situation of alienation and how we adjust to loss and renewal.

A love story with a time shift twist - just confusing enough to make it interesting, intriguing and thought provoking. Updated version of "Sliding Doors" as it explores what could have been Warm and entertaining, well acted in a relaxed, believable way.

Lovely shots of Barcelona too.