Truly Unpleasant

Rating: 3/10 (12 November 2001)

I was pretty enthusiastic about both Pi and its soundtrack, and was pleased to see another movie from the same fellow.
However, whereas Pi had an interesting plot and occasional moments of brightness, this movie was almost exclusively about suffering, and the last half of the movie almost gratuitously dwelt on that. My biggest beef was with the plot, which became a contrivance to abuse the characters, again in the last half. Whenever chance would have it that the protagonists could have several possible futures ranging from fortunate to dismal, the plot always chose the worst possible future. After a while, the suffering was completely artificial, loaded with graphic, ugly images; high-strung and irritating music, and a disregard for reality that had hitherto remained intact.
The acting was well-done, the direction had style, the music, save for the grating violins when things were really getting bad (which I suppose were meant to invoke pathos), was interesting and well-suited, but I have to ask myself -- why did I watch the movie if it was completely unpleasant, if I didn't learn anything save for the depths of pain and disgust to which a movie can go? I am all for intelligent independent movies, but there has to be some spark of enjoyment in it instead of a kaleidoscopic barrage of suffering. I regret watching this film.