Time Indefinite

Plot synopsis:
In the film, director Ross McElwee gets married, finally putting an end to his family's worrying; his grandmother dies; his wife Marilyn has a miscarriage; and his father, a medical doctor, dies suddenly within a week of McElwee's wife's miscarriage. His mother had died of cancer ten years earlier and so McElwee returns to his father's house, where his father's housekeeper ministers to him about Christianity and faith.
McElwee goes to visit his friend Charleen, who is now living alone in a new apartment. She had lived on an island in an old two-story house abandoned by the U.S. Army; she and her husband worked to restore it and lived together there for years before becoming estranged. Charleen then lived there alone, but on returning home from a trip she finds that her husband has set fire to the house and died downstairs at the grand piano in an arson/suicide. Charleen has her husband's cremated remains in a bag inside a box and tries to get rid of them but can't bring herself to do it.
McElwee's brother is a successful doctor; on a visit to his brother's practice, Ross talks with his brother about their father's death, which took them both by surprise. Ross's brother receives a patient who has a large malignant tumor on her breast; the woman has had the tumor for years without seeking medical help. Ross's brother takes a slide of the tumor for his files; it has spread across much of her chest and is both multifaceted and multicolored. Ross incorporates his brother's interview with the woman—and the slide his brother takes—into his film, musing in voiceover about motivation and fatality and marvelling at the power of denial.
Eventually Ross abandons the film, only to continue it later: his wife is pregnant. The pregnancy comes to term and Ross and Marilyn go with their baby son to visit Charleen, who criticizes them for bringing children into such a hostile and unpredictable world but speaks to the passion that drives life and procreation. Ross and Marilyn dote on their son and seem largely unbothered by the criticism.

Tags: autobiographical

Review:
Captures the interior/exterior dialogue of life clearly and beautifully. In the head of every human runs a dialogue with oneself. We are thinking about the perception our eyes are scanning every moment. In the head of a filmmaker, these processes are twice as complex, as he is examining the world as if it were life imitating art and vice versa. There's a sly and profound moment in Ross McElwee's "Time Indefinite" where the filmmaker (and main subject) is having his blood drawn, in accordance with the State Laws that require such an ordeal before marriage. Ross is looking at this through his camera and he tells us that he would rather watch it through his viewfinder because it's almost as if it were not happening in real life, but only in the world inside his film. That said, he purports to make his life into a document of absolute truth - sometimes comical, sometimes endearing - always real. What an amazing technique. What a film of exploration. Never have I sat viewing a film that moved me so effortlessly.He bargains with his wife on the wedding day for ten more minutes of footage. Why would someone do that? He has grown up around his uncles, who shot thousands of hours of home movie footage and when he unearths the footage of his parents' wedding, not seen for ages, he realizes how many moments have been missed. To Ross, those ten minutes he is granted by his wife are ten minutes more he will have documented regarding the great journey of victories and downfalls that his life.The film appears to be the maximum in solipsism, but, in fact, the opposite is more true. Ross doesn't come off as self-obsessed, but rather concerned. He is concerned with death and the whole issue of mortality that confronts us all. He wants a record of his life. Sure, he has a performance aspect to his role inside the film's world and the "flat but cynical" (To quote the great Paul Swann) voice-over narration, added long after the camera was put away, adds an internal aspect that puts him in center stage; but forget all that - this is a treasure to him. All this footage that everyone he knows has had to cope with being a part of is well-worth it in spades. Ross McEffee has done himself and his family justice when he paints his world out of what it gives him on a daily basis - reality and hidden messages within the everyday humdrum.Isn't that life, anyway? A series of images processed to mean what you take it to mean? When Ross greets a Jehova's Witness at the door and questions the bible as a means of comfort to the world's collapse, we are seeing in the simplest of terms, one thing perceived two different ways.This is Ross's life according to Ross. And it's brilliant. Insightful/Moving. The "sequel" of sorts to McElwee's brilliant "Sherman's March" as he continues to film his life, only now things have really changed: he gets married and he has a son. All of this makes him question many things: his mortality, what is important, true love, fidelity, lineage and he does it brilliantly. I've always enjoyed the form of documentary filmmaking but so many of them are bad, sloppy and rambling, but somehow, McElwee's always seems to avoid that. This is a terrific film and something worth renting (especially if you are a newlywed or just had your first child).. Self-Indulgent McTwaddle. Does anyone care about Ross McElwee's life except Ross McElwee?  Having seen several of his movies (I took a course in documentaries, and the instructor was enamored of the oh-so-twee McElwee), I can honestly say that I don't. I don't care about his family; I don't care about his wife; and most of all, I don't care about him.  Some find his meandering self-explorations charming; they're just boring.  And I can't recommend this film to anyone unless they are very willing to waste two hours of their life.