Saturday, April 26, 2008

Movie Review: The Tracey Fragments

The Tracey Fragments is trying to push the language of film and I appreciate that, I just wish it had more of a story. Ellen Page plays Tracey Berkowitz, a troubled 15 year-old. Her parents are always yelling, she doesn't have friends at school and she has a 9 year-old brother Sonny who's missing.

The film is unusual in that it uses many simultaneous fragmented images on the screen, as many as 20 at a time. This isn't like Timecode which always showed 4 images of events happening at the same time though usually in different places. The images, their numbers, and their shapes change to affect mood. This is a different use than how 24 uses split screen. Often the same scene is shown in several images from different angles or slightly offset in time or juxtaposed with related images. It's video cubism. It often works to add weight to the scene and I found myself sucked into the film immediately.

The problem is, in this film it seems to work best expressing a jumbled emotionally wreck, which Tracey is. It's like a stream of consciousness without the stream. Tracey is upset and is simultaneous remembering fragments of what led her to this. The film reveals the details at the end but it's not really a full plot as much as part of an unresolved one. The film is about the emotional content, and about two thirds of the way through the short 77 minute run time I was bored of the experience and wanted more.

There's some interesting stuff here and Ellen Page is good, but I think the story and technique would have been better suited to a (longish) short film rather than a (shortish) feature length film. The first use of a new technique doesn't always get all the details right, but hopefully more filmmakers will try.

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