I happened to see this movie on HBO the other night. To me it was a ho-hum movie. Nothing exciting, rather the usual depressing stories of down and out people living in 5 different rooms of the famous Chelsea Hotel, all at the same evening in time. The movie is filmed as if from a cam-corder, at times, very under-lit. The jumping from one room and story to another was chaotic. This movie reminded me of a book "Life A User's Manual" by Georges Perec. Except the book was far better. In the book, each story was like part a giant jig-saw puzzle slowly connecting the lives of the people in a large Paris apartment building so in the end the final piece was placed, the entire story connected. Not so with this movie. It is missing several pieces of the puzzle. So nothing connected. It was all about individual lives. Their only common piece is the Chelsea Hotel. I know that historic hotel must have lots of stories to tell in those walls. Just these stories were not so unusual to keep the movie interesting. I kept waiting for somehow the movie to make its point and connect all the stories together, then it just ended. The actors were great. The soundtrack was marvelous! So for that it was worth 6 stars.
Review of Chelsea Walls
