"The Tracy Fragments"

7/29/2008

This is a little independent movie starring that very watchable Ellen Page who made such a big splash in "Juno". I actually really like her. I dug her in "Hard Candy", too. That's an intense film.

I really liked the premise I read of this movie. It opens with Tracy sitting on a bus wrapped only in a shower curtain. We want to find out how and why she got there. Along the away, we find out she's been looking for her little brother whom she managed to hypnotize into thinking he's a dog. Her parents have sent her to a psychiatrist who may actually need one himself. On her search, Tracy fantasizes about a new boy at school whom she likes.

This is, for lack of a better description, a sort of coming of age story. But it's a tragic one. I think Ellen Page is great. She's sensitive, rebellious, sexy and naive all at once. The rest of the actors are good, too, but I'm not familiar with any of them.

The way the film is presented is as much a character as any of the actors. That is both a good thing, and bad. Much of the film's scenes are shown in multiple frames. This is an obvious reference to the title, "fragments", as well as the idea that this story is told in the first person via Tracy's memories. The idea that our memory is not always linear, that it comes in pieces, so all the varied frames supposedly represent that idea.

Honestly? It got kinda annoying after a while. I don't mind telling a story through memories, starting at one point and working our way back to find out the events that got them there, but when you start messing with the frames on screen, it gets pretty irksome. And these things move around and change images, it just gets to be too much.

Other than that filming style, I liked the story. It's no musical comedy, though, so don't expect "Juno", because it isn't. And I think it's definitely a movie rental rather than a theater movie. It doesn't cost as much. : )

See ya in the queue, kids.

"The Last Mimzy"

7/23/2008

We're starting pretty random here, so I'll just get on with it. I just returned the movie, "The Last Mimzy". This is one of those family movies with a fantasy/sci-fi theme about two misfit kids that find a strange box filled with strange objects and toys. And no, not their father's gift to their mother from the Adam and Eve catalogue.

This is a strange box sent from the future by a scientist trying to save the human race. Apparently pollution from chemicals and such have taken their toll on us in the future and have muddled our DNA so badly that we're dying out. So this scientist sends this box to the past, of which this is the last they can send, to try to collect the information they need to save our future.

One of the objects is a stuffed bunny, that the little girl names "Mimzy". It seems to talk to her and tells her stuff. And the geode rocks seem to levitate and swirl at her command. Then her brother can hear the sounds of the Universe and sees hyper-advanced geometric designs everywhere.

This is all to lead up to something that helps our future. In the meantime, their parents think their kids are nuts. Or geniuses. Or nutty geniuses. strangely, the boys science teacher thinks he may be a special child based on the drawings he makes of mandalas that the teacher seems to be having dreams about. So there's a bunch of stuff about mandalas in this movie. And stuff about "Alice in Wonderland", hence the Mimzy reference.

Is this a bad movie? No, not at all. In fact, it's alright. It's also not amazing. Based on the 5 star rating system at Netflix, I gave it a three. I would liked to have given it two and a half, but they don't have that option. I wish they would. There are a LOT of movies that fall into the 3 star category, and some of those really should be two and a half. Some movies are only ok, but not so ok that I "liked" them. This one is just ok. I was mildly entertained for about an hour and a half, but I don't know that I would earnestly recommend it. Maybe if you have a 10-12 year old they would like it.

'Til next time, see ya in the queue.

~ Neil