Seat 25

I really wanted to like this film, but I was very disappointed. Apart from a couple of sidesteps and the last 20 seconds, it was like watching paint dry in a room full of really annoying people. It's no wonder she wanted to leave. No life to this film except the last few seconds. There was a lot of potential ready to burst forth in the character, but it never got there.

This film wants to be Amelie SO BAD but it just isn't. It's a shame as it seems like it had so much potential if it had just done its own thing.

This film was a genuine delight. It was funny, moving and thought provoking. A very clever script and a stunning soundtrack. Good to see a truly great independent British science fiction. Definitely worth a watch! This film is certainly is not action packed, it moved along at a gentle pace that I really enjoyed.

SEAT 25 (2017)

Seat 25 was recommended to me by someone whose artistic talent and sensibility I respect. I like when friends refer films to me because it gets me to look beyond the films I would choose for myself. Sometimes I love their movie referrals, and other times, as in the case of Seat 25, I don't.

I did enjoy the performance by the lead actress, Madeleine Cooke, who also is a co-writer and producer of the project. She played the main character Faye Banks with a clear presence that gave access to her feelings of alienation in ways I felt were easily accessible. And depressing. Faye is a woman in a beige, uninspiring marriage and a thankless job as a Employment Termination Assistant, an axeman who delivers the news to poor souls that they are fired. Her family is physically and emotionally unavailable; her sister is a negative sterotype of a proclaimed free spirit who is in actuality a freeloader. Faye's husband is portrayed as a one dimensional man going through his days on auto-pilot, escaping to console games, life cliques, ("we're going to try for a baby now, it's the next logical step"), and briefcase-in-hand, bland morning exits.

Faye feels like an alien on planet earth and has been captivated by Mars since she was a child, and so naturally when a lottery for a ticket on a shuttle to Mars comes up, Faye applies... and is chosen to go. I'm not a believer in the idea that life on Mars is realistic or desirable, so I was out of this narrative from it's inception. I settled in to watch the film as a metaphor, and managed to find a few interesting moments in her interactions with her neighbor Peter, a stay-at-home dad, and with Teodor, one of the employees she fired; I hoped these relationships would go somewhere substantial, but I ultimately felt they were pawns to manipulative the story in ways I found void of meaningful impact.

Artistically I appreciated the cinematography; Faye's colorful, quirky wardrobe; and the set designs, even in her very beige house.

For me, Seat 25 never took off.

Like one reviewer here, I also wanted to like this movie but how it won so many awards escapes me. Others have enthusiastically praised or derided it here but in truth it deserves neither. Its not Sci-fi nor is it a deep meaningful look into the soul of a troubled existence in a dull and uninspired life. It felt two dimensional and lacking a spark dispite some decent cinematography and a promising storyline. I might need to watch it again to try and figure out what I missed, but I probably won't.