The bitter truth of life: 4 Months 3 Weeks and 2 Days

If there is one word that can describe 4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days, I would say that word is ‘difficult’. It is a difficult movie to stomach, and is vested with a difficult issue to handle.

Director Cristian Mungiu paints a bleak picture of life in communist Romania in the 80’s as he chronicles a day in the life of two girls, one of whom is intent on undergoing an abortion – made all the more difficult by the fact that it has to be done illegally. The film has no frills. It is stark and cold in its depiction of its events, and most importantly, it takes no sides. The camera simply follows Otilia (Anamaria Marinca) and Gabriela (Laura Vasiliu) as they try to get the abortion done with as few problems as possible – something of an anachronism perhaps, given the issue at hand.

Mungiu said an interview that 4 Months 3 Weeks and 2 Days is based on an actual story that he'd heard that affected him tremendously. Critics heaped praise on it as it won the Golden Palm at Cannes in 2007, even as it was a glaring omission in the Best Foreign Language Film category at this year's Oscars.

It is not a pleasant film, but to the director's credit, it is indeed a brave one.

If music be the food of love...: Once

...let Once play on.

Ever since I heard ‘Falling Slowly’, I knew I wanted to watch Once. That it won an Oscar for Best Song was only coincidental as far as I was concerned. Once is a small-budget film – at least, as small-budget as films go in the big, bad world of studio filmmaking. The camera, for example, shakes ever so slightly through quite a bit of the film. It is disconcerting as first, but as we continue to listen to the film’s songs, sung and performed so evocatively by the lead characters as the story progresses, we cease to pay attention to that detail.

Set in Dublin, Ireland, Once trails Glen Hansard and Marketa Irglova, both real-life musicians who also feature as the lead actors, as they meet, make music and learn a different love over the span of one week.

Music IS this film. I’m used to Bollywood films being considered strange if they don’t have at least five songs in them, but for a non-Bollywood film to be so much about music, and yet not a musical in the true sense of the term, was refreshing. It isn’t just ‘Falling Slowly’ that is a pleasure to listen to.‘Fallen from the Sky’ and ‘When Your Mind’s Made Up’ are beautifully composed and written as well, and even something like ‘Broken Hearted Hoover’ is fun. Full marks to Hansard (lead singer of the band The Frames) and Irglova, a Czech singer and songwriter, who bring life to the story as a busker and music-loving immigrant in Dublin respectively.

Interestingly, the film’s characters don’t have names. In the end credits, they are only referred to as ‘Guy’ and ‘Girl’, and this steers the film all the more towards its songs, which are what the two characters live and breathe. It doesn’t matter, really, that they don’t have names. As they introduce each other to their respective instruments (he the guitar, she the piano), they slowly draw out the music and lyrics in each other that existed, but never came to the fore.

Long live independent cinema, I say. We need more of these simple, uncomplicated stories that somehow make you remember that it is the simple things in life that matter.

The Unclarity of Passion: Atonement

Atonement is a tale of lust, guilt and retribution. Joe Wright’s adaptation of Ian McEwan’s novel colours the screen in dark shades of grey and leaves a lingering feeling of remorse, possibly the most difficult human emotion to deal with, as you watch the final credits roll.

One summer’s day in Britain, aspiring playwright, thirteen-year-old Briony Tallis’ (Saoirse Ronan) advances are spurned by Robbie Turner (James McAvoy), the housekeeper’s son who has been brought up by her family. Soon after this incident, she witnesses her Cambridge-returned elder sister Cecilia (Keira Knightley) strip her clothes off and jump into the garden fountain in pursuit of a family heirloom, watched by the same Robbie, who also happens to have gone to college with her. This serves as the impetus for another couple of incidents the very same day that push Briony’s already decaying innocence out of the window. Emotions thrown out of gear by jealousy and hatred, she unwaveringly declares Robbie guilty when his freedom hinges on her words. As Robbie is thrown into prison, the Second World War intervenes.

The film is not brilliant, but it is artfully made. Wright is clearly a storyteller filmmaker. He starts off relatively slowly, but builds up pace along the way. As the film’s end draws to a close, the final piece of the jigsaw puzzle shifts ever so slightly into place and you cannot help but admire the way Wright has brought McEwan’s story to the screen. It could have been a drab, run-of-the-mill war romance, but Wright has turned it into an emotional thriller of sorts, which makes for much more engaging viewing.

The central character through it all is neither the well-established McAvoy, nor is it Knightley. This film belongs to Briony Tellis’ character, enacted at different stages of her life by Saoirse Ronan, Romola Garai, and Vanessa Redgrave who all look so remarkably like gradually older versions of the same person that it is difficult to believe they are not. Atonement’s Oscar for Best Score is not unwarranted and heightens the drama suitably.

So, is Atonement worth a watch? I’d say yes.