Wednesday, June 04, 2008

The Cement Garden

Would you watch a movie that will make you uncomfortable ?

A movie that will challenge your accepted standards of morality ?

One which will definitely be called 'Pornography' by some, nay many ? pornography of the worst sort ?

And yet, one which is usually ferociously defended by a minority ?

If your answer is yes, then I'd suggest you go out right now (I shall wait) and rent yourself a copy of this beautiful movie called 'The Cement Garden.' and if you live in a country such as India, where finding the DVD would be as easy as finding an ounce of dignity in its politics, then you will have to download it from somewhere.

== May or may not contain SPOILERS==

You could call this 'What's Eating Gilbert Grape' for open minded adults but ironically the story revolves around a group of kids. There is no retarded kid in this one, however.

This is one of those movies which either gets a rating of 10\10 or 1\10 with 1 being 'worst,' so if you are one of those people whose opinions are almost always the opposite of popular opinions, then I shall guarantee that you will like this film.

The movie is a work of 'ART' and I am very stingy in my compliments. Every scene is a labor of love if I may use the cliche, and I use it without shame. The movie is based on Ian McEwan's novel of the same name, his first novel, one of 2 which earned him the nickname 'Ian Macabre' if I remember correctly. While that may be an ominous sign for some, for others such as myself, this would be like a call from the Sirens of Greek lore, It can not be resisted.

The movie runs at a very deliberate pace, but this is an integral part of the movie which serves to set the mood of the story. It discusses some very taboo topics and if you are put off by such things, you'd better avoid it. However, this is the beauty of this film, once you've seen as many movies as I, you start to look for offbeat cinema to stimulate your mind, because everything else has already been done.

The movie is set in a sort of wasteland, images of beaches, abandoned houses, junkyards, deserted roads, the sweltering summer heat, unwashed dinner plates etc, all reinforce the decrepitude of the situation and the isolation that the characters face, romanticizing real life like only the movies can and driving home the point that the story is set in very different circumstances than what most people face in their daily lives.

You would have observed that I haven't given away any details, because either that will stop you from watching it, or give you a false impression, what with this writer's ineptitude at being subtle. So go ahead and if you can and want to watch it and see if you like it as much as I did.

Oh also it stars Charlotte Gainsbourg. (21 grams, The Science of Sleep etc...)

2 comments:

Divya said...

oh, the last line made me want to go find the DVD! :D

JerryKantrell said...

yeah, I like her too.