A Sensação de Ver

I like movies about the meaning of life. Yes, they lack action, no special effects, no slick plots... just down-to-earth conversations.

It's a bit odd that Finn (David Strathairn) romps about town with encyclopedias in his little red wagon, but that's the point. The movie is slow for a reason. The images drive this movie as much as the characters. Each visual is as deep as the dialog.

The way Finn stops and wonders, the expressions on his face, his pauses in dialog... . The character of Finn would be a hard one to portray, but Strathairn provides a wonderful performance. Hats off to whoever cast him for the part.

American cinema doesn't have a history of taking risks. Instead it likes to put movies out into the public like cars on an assembly line. Same car, same make. They just change up the details. What the writer/director does in TSOS is to take risks and take on some difficult issues. Instead of having the actors explain everything as we're going along, he takes the risk of allowing the film to develop on its own.

If you go to watch a film made from Hollywood you might get that "wow" effect... but what about the second, third, fourth time? Do you get more out of each time? Or do you just find the same? With TSOS it's more like a play or novel. There are enough layers that you don't completely understand the story in its full extent until you watch it over and over again. It's like strong medicine and some of the weaker critics who only like "fluff films" and "cheap entertainment experiences" won't appreciate what this film has to offer.

I saw The Sensation of Sight at Two Boots in New York last week, and I'm still thinking about it. It's a mesmerizing trip into the soul -- funny, moving, frightening and exhilarating. The viewer must be willing to be drawn in - like a marvelous puzzle or mystery, it requires audience participation to yield its treasure. And David Straithairn makes that easy. Every conceivable emotion, thought, confusion, amusement, pain - a deep portrait of man - is all there in his face. His is a phenomenal performance, but he's just the center. Spinning around him are a marvelous, amusing, touching gallery of characters and performances - male and female, old, young, and children. A whole town's soul is exorcised here, and it is beautifully shot. First rate tech.

New Hampshire provides a picturesque setting for this indie feature, with a fine performance by David Strathairn as a grief stricken English teacher who has dropped out and is walking the town, pulling a child's wagon behind him filled with encyclopedias to sell door to door.

Along the way, he meets an odd assortment of people in this character driven drama. A single mother, a widowed father with a teen daughter, a loner, and other every day, ordinary men and women, just struggling to survive in this cold cruel world. Strathairn is Finn, the philosophical everyman, meeting these fellow travelers on his wandering journey, with books of knowledge to offer the public. The story is in the vein of some of John (The World According to Garp) Irving's work, but missing his darker, humorous aspects. Finn is a compelling figure, but the movie meanders along for over two hours, which, in the end, wore me out.

I saw Sensation of Sight on Friday night at the Denver Film Festival. I thought it was a very good film with an excellent ensemble cast. The audience at the screening gave a round of applause and seemed to have a very positive reaction. The story realistically portrays a small circle of people struggling to communicate their feelings of grief and loss, although there is a nice touch of the mystical as well. The first time writer and director, Aaron Wiederspahn was there and spoke at the screening along with David Strathairn, Scott Wilson, Ian Somerhalder, Ann Cusack, Elisabeth Waterson and Joseph Mazzello. The cast unanimously spoke well of the director and their experience making the film. They all stayed at the same bed and breakfast shown in the movie and shot it in 18 days; true independent film making.