Reviewed by William Edwards at the Santa Barbara Film Festival 2109.<\/p>\n
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I found this movie both delightful and inventive. \u00a0You can definitely refer to it as a \u201cdark comedy\u201d since it navigates a very taboo subject: suicide. \u00a0That inevitably invites the social requirement: if you our a loved one has attempted or even gone through with a suicide, this type of movie may not be your cup of tea and may even come across as distasteful.<\/p>\n
However, if these initial conditions are overcome, in my view, it is a very well-thought our and polished comedy. \u00a0For one thing, it\u2019s one of the rare movies that shows a relationship between a person and their undertaker and this emerges from the general story: a 35 year old woman appears to be going nowhere with her life, so she decides that the solution to her problem is suicide. \u00a0And all sorts of humorous situations occur including a wacky relationship with a rather…well, wacky undertaker, her undertaker who she has enlisted to handle her suicide which she has meticulously organized. \u00a0Also, included in this narrative are Shakespearean misunderstandings and other plot devices which moves the plot along in very interesting directions that make it very entertaining. \u00a0Of course, since this is a comedy, the plot could not very well take the narrative to it\u2019s logical conclusion – an actual suicide – which would inevitably convert it into a tragedy – which the viewerw would intuitively realize – nevertheless, this movie has underpinnings which I believe are something of the nature of the \u201cphilosophical\u201d.<\/p>\n
Without giving too much of the narrative away, the whole exercise of taking a life has very much to do with how we \u201cmake a life\u201d and the movie does address these rather fundamental, philosophical questions. \u00a0After all, Emma, at least during the start of the movie does not appear at first blush to be living the life of derelict or even degradation. \u00a0She has a job, she has a family, she has friends and she has a nice apartment. \u00a0So, that begs the question: why is she attempting suicide? \u00a0 And that\u2019s actually the Journey of the movie.<\/p>\n
What she actually finds out is that life is not about what is given but what you make of it. \u00a0And that\u2019s very much what we see right from the get-go: Emma has a bad attitude. \u00a0In fact, I found myself not liking her because of this and I realized that was the whole point and that\u2019s why the actress Monica Chokri does such a good job here. \u00a0Some comes across as something of the order of unattractive, even though she is physically attractive. \u00a0And consider this: an unattractive personality is often having trouble with existence – that\u2019s why they\u2019re complaining, criticizing and bitching…or just doesn\u2019t care. \u00a0 And what Emma Peeters learns is not that it\u2019s a \u201cWonderful life\u201d but that we have the potential to \u201cmake something of our life\u201d which in my view, is what life\u2019s really about. \u00a0So, in this case, what we start out with is something of a dingy comedy, but ends up to be something more profound; even much like Groundhog Day. \u00a0We can change things – through our attitude and intention adjustment – and make something rich out of something sour. \u00a0And perhaps that\u2019s why the writer started with a taboo and dramatic subject: a suicide, because after all, the viewer will realize that her decision to live has something to do with how she \u201chandled life\u201d.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Reviewed by William Edwards at the Santa Barbara Film Festival 2109. I found this movie both delightful and inventive. \u00a0You can definitely refer to it as a \u201cdark comedy\u201d since it navigates a very taboo subject: suicide. \u00a0That inevitably invites the social requirement: if you our a loved one has attempted or even gone through […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":247005,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,337],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-43721","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-films","category-santa-barbara-film-festival-2019"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/studentfilmreviews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43721","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/studentfilmreviews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/studentfilmreviews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/studentfilmreviews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/247005"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/studentfilmreviews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=43721"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/studentfilmreviews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43721\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":44006,"href":"https:\/\/studentfilmreviews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43721\/revisions\/44006"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/studentfilmreviews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=43721"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/studentfilmreviews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=43721"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/studentfilmreviews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=43721"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}