Not the most cheery of tales

Rating: 5/10 (6 May 2003)

MAY CONTAIN SPOILERS
Firstly I have to say that I'm bemused as to how Holly Hunter received an Oscar for this. She doesn't have any dialogue, therefore you would expect her to at least show off a facial expression or two. But no - she doesn't even have any of those in her locker, and instead maintains the same utterly depressing face throughout the entire two hours. To be honest, the whole story nearly bored me to death. To have the main character in the film as a mute isn't the best start, but we are not even offered any thoughts as to her predicament through the use of voice-over. Only at the beginning and end does her 'mind speak' and in all honesty I expected a lot more of this, particularly with the torment she suffers. Because of this, I couldn't sympathise with her at all as she was as distant to me as she was to the characters.
It seems ambiguous as to why she is mute in the first place - the obvious and most intriguing explanation being that she is seeking attention. Indeed she decides at the end of the film that she wants to speak now, as the idea of mutism is simply brushed aside.
The most discouraging aspect about this film on the whole is that nothing much happened. The pacing is extremely slow and laboured and in the end there isn't much to take from it. I'm still not sure how it received an Oscar nomination for Best Picture - very strange.