Shuffle (Kurt Kuenne, 2011): USA

Reviewed by Matilda Frid. Viewed at Santa Barbara Film Festival.

Shuffle is an amazing drama directed by Kurt Kuenne and made during an extremely short period of time on a not so big budget. The main character, Lovell Milo, is played by T.J Thyne that we also can see in Bones. Paula Rhodes is playing his love interest Grace, and we see Chris Stone in the role of Lovell’s father. There is actually an interesting story behind how this movie was born. The screenplay was written a while ago but another movie that was similar to Shuffle was being processed so they put the screenplay on hold. When the director got an Oscar nominated make-up artist to join in on the project it seemed like it could happen after all. The actor from Bones was on a break during that summer and decided to jump on board too. And suddenly, they had a crew that were all very excited to make this film. They ended up making this movie in no more than 22 days on a very low budget.

Shuffle is about a man that starts to experience his life out of chronological order. Every time Lovell wakes up he is in a new place in a different age. One day he was over 90 years old, the next day he is 8. When he falls asleep he never know where and when he will wake up. Naturally, he starts to panic and doesn’t know whether he is crazy or not and if this will ever be over. Strangers show up out of the blue, telling him to pay attention. As the movie continues we find out things about his life that brings us some steps closer to solving the mystery. In the end, it’s really a movie about love and family. It’s about striving to be happy, even if it means forgiving something unforgivable and moving on.

I was very eager to see this movie as I love these kinds of movies that are sort of like a puzzle. When I walked out of the salon, I felt like the movie had reached far beyond my expectations. Just like in life, you could find everything in this movie. It was a romantic drama, comedy, touching tragedy and thriller, all in one. From the very beginning I was hooked. I could hardly notice that this was a low-budget movie. The black and white color together with the lighting and contrast made this movie memorable. The only problem I had was with the actress playing Grace. She used such a baby voice that it ruined the seriousness of a scene and I just couldn’t take her seriously. The other actors were excellent though. I really saw how much our main character loved Grace and that is rare. This is so far my favorite movie in the film festival. I was surprised by every twist and smiled every time something funny happened. It was well-made, moving, beautiful and smart. If I had to recommend only one film from the film festival, this would be the one.