One and a Half

Rating: Null/10 (22 March 2011)

One can hope for good films. When preparing for the journey, one communicates with one's self about what to expect. If the construction is like this, a "puzzle film," then the conversation continues through the film as it sustains two souls watching. Often, those souls can be sent down parallel paths in so-called narrative folds.
But sometimes, one of those souls jumps out of the path determined by the writer and "solves the puzzle" in ways never imagined before the encounter. That happened to one of me in watching this. The determined solution is intended to be rather Russian: a tool operator is fishing with his buddy, is tired on the way home. At 1:30 pm he kills a child crossing the street and runs away. We meet him a year later when he is fully split, having not slept or eaten much that entire year.
The art here is in how his interaction with his second self is mapped onto the telling of the story: with parallel mothers, wives, children, cars arms and fish. There is a situational confusion that the film harmonizes by collapsing selves. Unfortunately, the puzzle is too rich for this simple solution, and an attentive watcher splits and finds other more rewarding interpretations.
The one my other self prefers is: a factory worker named Reynolds goes fishing with a coworker. That coworker, Reznik, has serious mental problems and projects them onto his relationship with Reynolds. Reynolds has previously been traumatized by an industrial accident damaging his arm. The two disturbed men argue, one trying to be the son of the other. Reznick is killed and dumped in the lake.
On the way home in his flashy car, disturbed Reynolds has an accident and is thrown into a coma. We meet him after a year of being asleep, hallucinating himself into the emaciated body of the man he killed whose sleep he has stolen. This dream world is cornered in four directions by women: whore, mother, companion, nourisher.
Reynolds dies without waking, but only after he has "confessed" and redeemed himself. This is hard for us to see because we have been introduced to Resnik as a real human. Does he succeed? My other me says yes.
JJ Leigh is again the prostitute/movie viewer.
Ted's Evaluation -- 2 of 3: Has some interesting elements.