First, this film is very morally flawed. It equates rounding up illegal aliens and deporting them with rounding up Jews and gassing them. This is, itself, a moral perversion.
Second, there are too many 'moral' messages. The director/producers tried to address too many issues: corporate fascism, impersonal government technocracy, the murder of the Jews, illegal aliens, etc. Rather than make one point well, they made many points poorly.
Third, it is badly written, produced, and directed. You could eliminate the protagonist's girlfriend altogether and not only not harm the movie but actually improve it. There were scenes, like the rave, that made no sense at all. There were other relationships, like the protagonists involvement with the blonde, that also made no sense. In other places, character development is flawed as is plot development. In all, you could cut over an hour from this film and have a better film.
Example: there is one excruciatingly awful singing episode that you sit through thinking the director would not torture you with this unless it was important. Alas, it is merely torture....
And that is the great weakness of this film. There are many scenes that do not enlighten, inform, educate, entertain or move the plot forward. They seem to be there for no reason at all. The producer's thinking seems that the more you ignore plot development and dramatic tension the more 'artsy' your film is.
If painfully boring is great art this picture belongs in the Louvre.
The pretense of a 'moral message' is no excuse for bad film making. This film is over rated at 6 stars.
Second, there are too many 'moral' messages. The director/producers tried to address too many issues: corporate fascism, impersonal government technocracy, the murder of the Jews, illegal aliens, etc. Rather than make one point well, they made many points poorly.
Third, it is badly written, produced, and directed. You could eliminate the protagonist's girlfriend altogether and not only not harm the movie but actually improve it. There were scenes, like the rave, that made no sense at all. There were other relationships, like the protagonists involvement with the blonde, that also made no sense. In other places, character development is flawed as is plot development. In all, you could cut over an hour from this film and have a better film.
Example: there is one excruciatingly awful singing episode that you sit through thinking the director would not torture you with this unless it was important. Alas, it is merely torture....
And that is the great weakness of this film. There are many scenes that do not enlighten, inform, educate, entertain or move the plot forward. They seem to be there for no reason at all. The producer's thinking seems that the more you ignore plot development and dramatic tension the more 'artsy' your film is.
If painfully boring is great art this picture belongs in the Louvre.
The pretense of a 'moral message' is no excuse for bad film making. This film is over rated at 6 stars.