Le coeur à vif

The movie that will make all others shine. American Pie becomes an epic artistic accomplishment in comparison. To its credit, somehow it does manage to out-bore watching paint dry, out depress tax return season, and generally is the only movie i can think of that's worse than an hour and a half with your dentist.

This must be the worst movie ever made. 1.5 hours of your life are stolen from you with zero interest, humor, plot, story, emotion, or even drab dialog given back in return. How could they make a movie about nothing and just keep going sideways, on and on. I kept waiting for something to happen; a redemption that brilliantly ties it all together. Something to make it worthwhile. Surely the boring, depressing nothingness is like the start of Bolero, that we need hang in there to be amazed with some forthcoming stroke of brilliance tying it together? don't hold your breath, there's no crescendo in this one, the entire movie doesn't rise above a sad whimper.

The original title of this bleak film - WHEN A MAN FALLS IN THE FOREST - was inexplicably shortened to the nebulous WHEN A MAN FALLS for the release of the DVD: had the original title been retained, the audience may have been given a clue as to the intended message of the story. This is the second film for 26-year old writer/director Ryan Eslinger and it does suggest that he wants to deal with some existential material, but he has a way to grow into how to make it happen.

The lives of three men and a woman are interconnected in the all too common shallow 'relationships' that are a major problem in how our society is working. Bill (Dylan Baker) is a night janitor in a large company, a man who shuts out the boring world with his earphones connected to the great opera classics: he avoids people including those who saunter past him and those whose chaotic lives in the next door apartment distress him. Gary Fields (Timothy Hutton) is a down and out professional man who works in the building that Bill nocturnally keeps tidy, the two 'old high school acquaintances' meeting only because Gary has taken to sleeping in the office. Gary's wife Karen (Sharon Stone, without makeup and looking spent and used) has lost all feeling for living, detests Gary, and finds her only joy is in shoplifting. Gary has shut himself off from old friends for reasons that seem to be related to an accident that involved is best friend Travis (Pruitt Taylor Vince), a man at odds with his own environment. The only apparent connection here is that, once Gary discovers that Bill is a night janitor, Gary and Travis feel guilty that their response to Bill in high school had been one of cruel ridicule. Each of the four main characters wanders aimlessly through a world that has become strange and vindictive and it is only a bizarre incident that throws the quartet into some semblance of meaning. Each person has fallen, but since they are in the midst of a lonely 'forest', has anyone noticed or cared? This could be a study in personal tragedy were it done better, but despite the fine credentials of the actors, the script is so full of holes that character development suffers and what results is not unlike watching an injured bull struggling around a bullfight ring as the crowd attends to the matador et al. Sadly we just don't care about these damaged people, making connection with the film next to impossible. Maybe next film...Grady Harp

A decent film, but be in the mood for some introspection. Sharon Stone is great because, well, she's Sharon Stone. You always get the feeling she's just about ready to snap a full on crazy - but that kinda IS what is interesting about Sharon Stone. Sort of a female Jack Nicholson, but hotter in heels and a skirt.

The movie gives a snapshot of how we can all get lost in drudgery and mundane life. So don't view when you're really depressed. The film does a nice job with symbolism and there's an incident that unites the characters and pulls the story together. Good film to watch on a chilly night with some cocoa and buddy so you can have the discussion about how you feel SO much better about YOUR life and would NEVER slide into one of the character's way of life.

I'd give it a B-

WHEN A MAN FALLS IN THE FOREST is a movie that in Italy and few other European countries was released in theaters but in the US was released straight to video. And although this statistic might mean it's a terrible movie, it wasn't. Now please don't assume I loved it, but I mildly liked it.

The film is about the interwined lives of a group of people that are not really happy despite the apparences. Karen Fields (Sharon Stone) is a woman frustrated of her life and her separated at home husband Gary (Timothy Hutton) wants desperately to find the joy of live while being addicted to alcohol. Bill (Dylan Baker) is a janitor that is afraid of meeting new people and is annoyed by a family with kids that moved near his apartment and Travis (Pruitt Taylor Vince) is a man that lives marked by a trauma.

I liked the performances. Stone and Hutton were fine at playing an estranged wife and husband that after a while are reunited with their daughter that came for a visit, and Baker was good at the janitor. My issue was that some of the actions of Travis didn't make a lot of sense and I really hoped that the lives of the characters would have hugely improved but the ending left it open. As it is, it's a decent drama about the lives of some people with their problems but nothing more.

I enjoyed this movie a lot. The opening scenes, focusing on shots of electrical leads unravelling, an alienated janitor, moving his hoover back & forth, show that this is the kinda of film which you may have to suspend judgement a little over what is happening and where it might be heading and perhaps look a little deeper at the symbolism. Inter-twining lives are not of course new but those of the three male leads, Bill, Gary & Travis & that of Karen are not so much connected by events but more by how they are dealing, or not dealing with, their various personal dilemmas & tragedies or just their own approaches to their lives. Beautifully shot, well acted & directed, this film has more than an air of surrealism & may be open to more interpretation of the dreams & realities & possibilities than perhaps you might think at first. Recommended.