A Great Film Undermined By Style

Rating: 7/10 (7 August 2009)

I really liked the writing, the acting, the direction of this film. However, the hand-held camera-work was repetitive, artificially motivated and self-conscious, and it took me right out of the movie. I have to say this because I really liked this movie and I feel like the actors did a fantastic job making their characters feel real. But all this work is undermined by the artifice and the visual cliché of the shaky hand-held camera. The camera movement was so disconnected from the action, it called such attention to itself, it took me right out of the movie. The filmmakers should have studied "Children of Men" for how to use the camera more effectively.