Who is Roman Osin and why is he doing this???

Rating: 8/10 (25 December 2005)

First of all, the movie as a whole was extremely well acted, well scripted and faithful. It was a relief to see that the humor was not missed and was also not overplayed. I would easily have rated it 9 out of 10 - possibly even 10 out of 10, except...
About a quarter of the way into the movie my wife leaned over and whispered to me, "I'm feeling a bit dizzy - I may have to leave." Within less than a minute we both realized why she was feeling dizzy. It was the movie's cinematography! By the time the movie was over, we had come to the firm conclusion that cinematographer Roman Olin had devoted the first half of the film to a concerted effort to instill vertigo in the audience. In my wife's case, he succeeded.
We understand full well that there are all sorts of devices available in the film world to influence the audience's perception - from sound to color to lighting to framing and on and on. Skillful use of these devices creates a mood or underscores a message without the audience being consciously aware of the device's presence, let alone its impact. But what one filmmaker employs as a surgical tool, another may use as a blunt instrument to bludgeon unsuspecting victims, er, viewers.
Mr. Olin uses spinning, swooping, off-balance shots in such a heavy-handed surfeit during the film's first half that he risks inducing nausea. And while the movie was so very well done overall, we unfortunately left the theater with only one burning question - WHY? If this was to convey a message, what was it? I'm afraid we missed it, and given that the device was so overused as to become a gimmick, it must have been an awfully important message Mr. Olin was trying to drive home - drive as in sledgehammer, not as in Ferrari. Are we that dense, that we did not get the point? Or did we miss it because our faces were being shoved in it? Perhaps Mr. Olin meant to convey Elizabeth's confusion and misapprehensions. If so, then we can certainly observe that subtlety is not a word in his vocabulary. If not, then, well, what the heck was he doing? Thankfully, whatever his intent (perhaps mission would be a better word), he suddenly abandoned it about halfway through the film, which was a true blessing. But it is sad that, for us, this one manic gimmick threw a bit of a wet blanket over an otherwise splendid and thoroughly enjoyable movie-going experience. Dramamine, anyone?