Product: Triangle (2009)
Rating: 2.0
abstract nonsense
What's keeping me from giving this movie 1 star is the assumption that Christopher Smith's film is simply a drawn-out, exaggerated metaphor for a young mother who continually finds herself trapped by the cycle of abuse that passes from parent to child, from one generation to the next. That would be about the only saving grace that I can attribute to this movie which, if not extended that benefit of doubt, would be a complete and utter mess of abstract nonsense with absolutely no tethers to explanation or common sense.It's great when a movie throws you more curves and plot twists than a single viewing can be used to comprehend; Memento, Shutter Island, Inception for a few examples. It's frustrating when a director gives you an open-ended disarray of contradictory plot movements and 'what the fu..' moments and then never bother to even attempt an explanation. You're just suppose to go with it, reason be damned. Well, that's just not good enough.Triangle wants desperately to be something provocative and intellectually challenging, forcing the viewer to question what's happening onscreen both during and after the film plays out. Problem is, the whole idea behind it is so incredibly stupid it begins numbing your brain not long after the first few questions arrive. Instead of drawing you in and making you care about the story with interesting dialog and cleverly constructed plot twists, the script actually pushes you away through it's own impenetrability. It makes no sense and three quarters of the way through, you no longer care anyway.Don't listen to the 5 star reviews, or ones that proclaim they understand this movie. It doesn't deserve 5 stars and, other than Christopher Smith himself, there's no one that really understands it.