Skip to main content

Adrift in Manhattan (2007)

Friday, April 17, 2009

Adrift In Manhattan. Feature film. (2007, 91 mins) IMDB

...a flat, emotionless film...

A

n old man visits an eye doctor and discovers he's going blind and there's nothing to change the outcome. It wouldn't be so bad except he likes to paint which is impossible to do without sight. As discussed in the film, Beethoven could still write music because he heard it in his head and could see to write it down. It didn't matter he couldn't listen to the final result because he had perfect pitch and well, he was Beethoven.

The eye doctor, played by Graham, is adrift because her two-year old son died. She and her husband (Baldwin) separated as a result. We learn the son died because he fell out a window of their high-rise building. She was watching him but not closely enough.

There is Simon. He's around twenty. He doesn't say much. He works in a photography shop destined to end because of the digital movement. He likes to shoot photographs of people. Early in the film, he spots the doctor and like a stalker follows her and snaps photos. He follows her to her home and snaps photos of her inside.

Later, with the B&W photos printed, he delivers them to her. Her first instinct is to call the police, then discuss it with the owner of the photography shop and finally to have sex with this young man in her house after he follows her again. The minute the sex is over, she tells him to leave.

Meanwhile our old man develops a relationship with a forty-something co-worker. They have a family dinner. Kiss. There's an odd couple. He's never been married. Has no children. No relatives. Hooking up with her seems like a good thing, except he can't or won't. He can't tell her he's going blind although maybe he does.

There's also Simon's mother. She has a job during the day which she hates. In the evening it's her and her son and wine. The father is probabaly a deadbeat and nowhere to be seen. What surprised me about this relationship was the fact the mother treated her son as if he were her lover. Very odd and disturbing.

This film isn't about going from A to B to C with some purpose. It simply shines a light on these disparate characters. We get a glimpse of their lives and its over.

In doing this, we're supposed to be enlightened, interested, entertained, amused, challenged, or provoked, but I can't say any of this happened.

The result is a movie that is flat from beginning to end and is, for the most part, devoid of emotion. One of the reasons we watch films is to feel emotions. To laugh and cry and shrink away from danger. When we feel these things, we know we're alive otherwise it might as well be a dream.

Posted 2009/04/17 at 18h21ET in Movie Commentary.

Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

A Piece of the Action (1977)

Saturday, March 7, 2009 A Piece of the Action. Feature film. (1977, 135 mins) IMDB ... Who would you have over for dinner? Sidney Poitier or Bill Cosby. ... A PIECE OF THE ACTION is the third film starring Bill Cosby and Sidney Poitier. Poitier also directed the films. (And yes, I would be fascinating to have both them sitting around a table for dinner.) We're in Chicago and I love the setup for this film. It's clever, fun and interesting. It starts during the dark of night. Crosby is a cat burglar robbing a vault in a bank. He's by himself, all the tools he needs, and doesn't speak a word of dialogue for at least the first twenty minutes of the film. It must have been killing him. His robbery goes off successfully. (It includes a jump from a six or seven story window. There was a similar scene in their earlier films.) When the cops arrive during the daylight, they haven't a clue and we catch a glimpse of James Earl Jones as a detect...
Post a Comment
Read more

If Only We Could Agree

Monday, June 11, 2012 ... have you been accused of misspelling a word you know is correct ... S usanne O’Leary wrote an interesting article on her experience with the variations of the English language in different countries. You know the obvious ones like colour with or without a “u” but less obvious ones like travelled versus traveled. Growing up in Sweden she learnt English in school—the UK variation. In publishing her books, she read reviews where she was criticized for improper spelling. False accusations as it turns out. While I write tire and cozy, it’s not incorrect to write tyre or cosy. Same language. Both accepted. Just different. You can read her write-up here along with the numerous comments posted by readers. I found it interesting, but that’s me. As a Canadian I deal with this issue everyday. I feel her pain when she’s criticized for something based on ignorance. No fun. I was told by a boss that “data are” isn’t correct. It should be “data is.” Read...
2 comments
Read more

No Reservations (2007)

Saturday, May 2, 2009 No Reservations. Feature film. (2007, 104 mins) IMDB ... I so much wanted to like this film but couldn't ... T his film had two things I like a great deal: romance and cooking, but they didn't come together for me in this film. I think I know why. The female lead doesn't strike me as a romantic leading lady. That's just me. I also found the story line stale and uninteresting. Our hero lives in NYC working at a fine dining restaurant where she is the chef and dictator. Everything about her life is about cooking. Nothing else seems to matter. No children. No relationships. Then her life is kicked apart. Her sister and niece travel to visit her but before they arrive, there's an accident. The mother dies and little Zoe has to live with her aunt. Our hero struggles to include a new person into her life but what follows is so predictable as to be boring. To add even more complications to our hero's life, her sous...
Post a Comment
Read more