"Graduation" is proof that the plight of the white male we're currently hearing so much about in America is not limited to the U.S.
In the latest film from Romanian director Cristian Mungiu, our protagonist, the middle-aged Romeo, desperately wants his daughter to get into an elite British college. He hounds her day and night about her exams. She seems like a responsible, level-headed girl, but we sense that the whole thing isn't quite as important to her as it is to her dad. Then she's sexually assaulted one day, and the emotional and physical trauma the assault causes threatens to affect her performance at her exams. Romeo decides to take matters into his own hands and we watch as things begin to spiral out of control.
"Graduation" is a bit one note. We understand early on that Romeo is projecting a lot onto his daughter. He's unsatisfied with his own life, which is a failure in his own eyes. He has a desultory and sullen marriage, lives in what looks to be government housing in a poor area, and is part of a traditional patriarchal system that seems to be losing its grip. "Graduation" is full of scene after scene of middle-aged men striking bargains, calling in favors, putting each other in touch with a friend of a friend. But there's an increasingly desperate quality to all of the mutual back scratching, and we sense that these guys are beginning to feel what it's like in a world where they no longer call all the shots. The final image of the film lingers on a group of young graduating Romanians. What will become of them, the film seems to ask? What future Romania will they manufacture? The answer is unclear, except for the fact that it will likely not include a place for someone like Romeo.
This is the third Mungiu film I've seen after "The Death of Mr. Lazarescu" and "4 Months, 3 Weeks, 2 Days," and while it doesn't pack anywhere near the same wallop as those other two films, it's still quite good. It reminded me an awful lot of the recent Iranian movie "The Salesman," as both feature middle-aged men going to extreme lengths to influence circumstances that are largely out of their control.
Grade: A
In the latest film from Romanian director Cristian Mungiu, our protagonist, the middle-aged Romeo, desperately wants his daughter to get into an elite British college. He hounds her day and night about her exams. She seems like a responsible, level-headed girl, but we sense that the whole thing isn't quite as important to her as it is to her dad. Then she's sexually assaulted one day, and the emotional and physical trauma the assault causes threatens to affect her performance at her exams. Romeo decides to take matters into his own hands and we watch as things begin to spiral out of control.
"Graduation" is a bit one note. We understand early on that Romeo is projecting a lot onto his daughter. He's unsatisfied with his own life, which is a failure in his own eyes. He has a desultory and sullen marriage, lives in what looks to be government housing in a poor area, and is part of a traditional patriarchal system that seems to be losing its grip. "Graduation" is full of scene after scene of middle-aged men striking bargains, calling in favors, putting each other in touch with a friend of a friend. But there's an increasingly desperate quality to all of the mutual back scratching, and we sense that these guys are beginning to feel what it's like in a world where they no longer call all the shots. The final image of the film lingers on a group of young graduating Romanians. What will become of them, the film seems to ask? What future Romania will they manufacture? The answer is unclear, except for the fact that it will likely not include a place for someone like Romeo.
This is the third Mungiu film I've seen after "The Death of Mr. Lazarescu" and "4 Months, 3 Weeks, 2 Days," and while it doesn't pack anywhere near the same wallop as those other two films, it's still quite good. It reminded me an awful lot of the recent Iranian movie "The Salesman," as both feature middle-aged men going to extreme lengths to influence circumstances that are largely out of their control.
Grade: A