This film is based on an interesting idea which in the right hands could have been a wonderful film. Its an indie film, of course it is, but I have seen a good few indie films and this really hits rock with the director. I mean Alison Murray, I'm sure she knows a lot about being a teenage dropout but she doesn't know much about making a gripping film.
Its got some pretty good casting, about six of the people cast were okay actors and that includes Ellen Page, it didn't really push her the way a film and a good director should, as as we have all seen - she can do a lot better! The film was shot as though Murray read about every effect you can do with a camera and thought - I'm gonna use them all! It went light for no reason, it didn't accentuate a feeling or to show an emotion, it wasn't intimate or innocent it just was and in my experience, ever shot should be justified, from the first to the very last.
The sound track was good, I'll give you that. And some of it was quite hard hitting, but I find it difficult to believe that I just watched a film where people died in the course of an anarchist group trying to find freedom and I don't care about them. It wasn't believable, no grief, no despair, no anguish. I wasn't reeled in, I didn't feel their pain and so I didn't believe in its reality.
It is that typical film made by someone who wants to tell their 'incredible story' and just got out of art school. It tries to fit too much in to the plot when a good film can focus on both plot and the dimension of the characters. The ending was excruciating and I cant believe I just spent £15 on this film.
