When I mentioned to my friend that I was seeing an Icelandic movie about the sole survivor of a shipwreck, he said, “So it’s like Cast Away, but cold.” For about the first half of the film, this isn’t far from the truth. Following an exciting marine action sequence depicting the accident, we see the man alone in the cold and dark ocean, struggling to swim. The feeling of isolation is very powerful. To combat loneliness, he even talks to a bird (instead of a volleyball). Throw in some 127 Hours-style flashbacks and hallucinations, and it’s a dramatic, harrowing experience.
The second half is more subdued, and follows the aftermath of his ordeal. There are two threads going on: one deals with his feelings of survivor’s guilt, and the other deals with the scientific improbability of his survival in low temperatures. Neither of these threads is particularly satisfying (and the latter’s conclusion essentially boils down to this: he’s fat, and that’s why he survived). The aftermath lacks tension, and has the feeling of a denouement, but lasting for half the duration of the film.
Rating: 6/10
Unfortunately, I didn’t get to see the whole of this film because I had to get to my next screening. (When planning a schedule for TIFF, I seem to forget that I can’t teleport directly between seats in two non-adjacent theatres.) Therefore, I can only comment on the setup of the film, which isn’t about Shanghai at all, but rather an Indian town that is about to be heavily developed by a large architecture/construction conglomerate. There are those who oppose the builders because the locals will be losing their land, and the leader of this opposition group is involved in a motor vehicle accident which is probably not an accident.
From there, a small ensemble of characters try to find out what happened and who’s behind it, &c. (During the investigation, the accident is replayed several times from different perspectives, which I morbidly enjoyed perhaps more than I should have.) The setting, interconnecting plots, and political intrigue reminded me of the novel Sacred Games in a good way.
I guess I can only credit the film for making it hard to leave early. I really wanted to find out what happened…
Rating: waived
I’ve never seen one before, but I’ve heard that ESPN’s 30 for 30 documentary series is well worth watching, “even if you don’t like sports,” as is often made a point of. After seeing this film about the 1988 men’s 100m Olympic final, I can see why. It’s well-paced, and combines humour and drama so that by the time the race is shown (for the second time; the film opens with the race, and then repeats it later after introducing the participants and the various relationships and rivalries between them), you really feel what’s at stake, or at least what the runners feel is at stake.
Everyone must have been aware going in to the film that Ben Johnson later lost his medal and record because of his use of P.E.D.s, and in the queue before the movie, my friend and I were talking about who was guilty (Johnson) and who was innocent (Carl Lewis) and how wouldn’t it be ridiculous if Johnson himself showed up for this?
“He would get booed out of the theatre,” I said, and I meant it. He was a cheater and a villain, after all.
To our surprise, he really did show up for the Q & A after the film, and received a somewhat enthusiastic round of applause. I found myself applauding too. Not that I have any great love for the man, but maybe the film showed that the situation was more complex than I previously thought, and that there were circumstances outside of Ben Johnson’s control, and maybe the morality of sports doping in general is not so black and white anyway, and besides, at least the guy told the truth in the end. To make one rethink one’s assumptions is all one can really ask for from a documentary film.
Rating: 7/10
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