Partially successful attempt to fuse a style and a genre

Rating: 6/10 (20 July 2010)

For its first twenty-five minutes, this film is excellent. It succeeds in setting a relaxed atmosphere, and lulls the viewer into a state of comfort, and provides just enough light emotional interest that the sudden twist really does come as an unwelcome intrusion. After this, however, the trump card has been played, and from then onwards, the film's point of distinction becomes the unwelcome intrusion, for reasons which I will discuss.
The mixed fortunes of this film are not surprising, given its layered structure. There are precisely two important layers to the film. On the one hand, an attempt is made to obscure the fact that the film is an illusion, by presenting it as if it were real footage. On the other hand, the subject matter is unmistakably derived from the history of film, and consists of a familiar set of problems and 'surprises,' illusions which are famous as such. Let us refer to these layers as style and genre respectively. The problem is that the style and the genre frequently work against one another. Presumably, the film-makers' intention was to reinvigorate a classic genre with a technical conceit. However, the genre depends on the surface of the illusion not being disturbed; the viewer must forget that he/she is in a cinema, or the ludicrous conventions of the genre will appear to him/her. The style undermines this requirement, by making itself a feature. By asking to be noticed, it prevents the audience from entering into the world of the film.
The film asks us to be savvy and credulous at once; and ultimately, in my opinion, fails because of this.
6/10