a monster with two heads

Rating: 10/10 (29 April 2010)

1. OK. stars are stupid but it got your attention. 2. I feel strongly about this pic. I've paid to see it three times in 7 days. 3. basic description: there is a core story and then there are layers of commentary overlaid: a prologue (guy on building),and epilogue (returning to normal life), a soundtrack, and a voice-over narration. 4. For me, the core story is disturbing, pathetic, tragic,with moments that are utterly grotesque. A great picture, and very lovely, but very hard to watch. 5. The function of the "commentaries" seems to me to undermine the impact of the story, to say everything is no big deal. But, saying something is funny doesn't make it funny. and saying it's no big deal doesn't make it no big deal. The "commentaries" only confuse, by attempting to trivialize what is profound on its face. (I admit the music is absolutely apt most of the time, I just have a couple of instances where key scenes are trivialized by the music (and no I don't mean the first big scene with Hit Girl and the Banana Splits theme). 6. The picture is so strong that for the most part it survives for me, but apparently not everyone is so lucky, based on the reviews of most of the reviews, which seem to think the story is some sort of cute funny joke. But the last (third!) time I saw it I absolutely cringed at every line of the voice-over. What a load of b.s. I'm beginning to wonder whether this stuff was laid on before the distributors got a look at it, to make it more attractive, or whether the distributors actually asked for these additions before they would buy. either way it's a shame.