Great idea for a story. If one person's destiny were altered (in this case, not dying), how might that event change the lives of numerous other people, or in this case, prevent seven others from dying. This great idea pulled me to this film at the Seattle Int. Film Festival. But great ideas don't always turn out the way you would have wanted them to when in the creative hands of someone else. What results is 8 black and white vignettes lasting about 7 minutes each where people die in different manners (overdose, choking, etc.) followed by a 30 minute "what if..." conclusion in color that shows a different destiny for the seven others.
But before you get to this somewhat interesting ending, you must endure these gritty, stupid, poorly written, over acted "scenarios" that has you wanting to yell at the screen "Will someone hurry up and die so we can get on with it". In seven minutes, you can't learn enough about these pathetic people to care about any one of them and when you know what's going to happen in scene after scene it make for a very grueling time at the movies. Some of the scenes are played as very tragic and some are quite slapstickish and had the audience laughing, not really because it was funny, but because it was ridiculous and it gave us a way to blow off frustration and vent back at the film.
With it's look, staging, feel and confusing Spanish dialect (this wasn't the Spanish I learned in school and can follow in most Spanish movies), the movie has a very definite "foreign film" feel to it, at least everything I fear from seeing foreign films. This may work for some, but not for this American boy (and devout movie lover).
But before you get to this somewhat interesting ending, you must endure these gritty, stupid, poorly written, over acted "scenarios" that has you wanting to yell at the screen "Will someone hurry up and die so we can get on with it". In seven minutes, you can't learn enough about these pathetic people to care about any one of them and when you know what's going to happen in scene after scene it make for a very grueling time at the movies. Some of the scenes are played as very tragic and some are quite slapstickish and had the audience laughing, not really because it was funny, but because it was ridiculous and it gave us a way to blow off frustration and vent back at the film.
With it's look, staging, feel and confusing Spanish dialect (this wasn't the Spanish I learned in school and can follow in most Spanish movies), the movie has a very definite "foreign film" feel to it, at least everything I fear from seeing foreign films. This may work for some, but not for this American boy (and devout movie lover).