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Review: My Life – The Year so Far.
It is often the case that not being sure what to expect about something allows me to more easily appreciate the subtler of its fineries. And while this is the case with The Year so Far, its subtler fineries are interwoven with its explicit dirges. Interwoven, so that like the proverbial coin, the Year so Far is a product of its two extreme and inseparable opposites. And in order to try and make sense of this, I find myself trying to separate the inseparable and dissolve the insoluble. Which leads me to a recurring and pertinent question that I keep coming back to: just what is this story about?
The plot, or at least the sum of the events that make a valiant attempt at a nearly convincing impression of a plot, moves with many surprising twists and turns, but only it would seem at some of the most unexpected and unwelcome points in time. There are, however, too many uncomfortably slow passages. Too much space when nothing happens. Just nothing at all.
As a narrative it is far from linear, being no more than a collection of tenuously connected tales that barely hold together as a coherent piece. Yet somehow, the plethora of annoyances emerge from the chrysalis of the story transformed into something much greater than the sum of their parts. In fact, much greater than the sum of their parts could ever have even dreamt of becoming.
I found The Year so Far to be hard going in many places. Not only is the storyline barely even ephemeral, being woven as it is around a robustly intangible structure. But also the style varies. Without warning. For no reason. No apparent reason. It’s confused. And confusing. There are flaws. There are moments of brilliance and beauty. Both sides of the coin again. The main character is too inconsistently unstable to empathise with, and too superficially self-indulgent to be believable. The dialogue swings with grating ease from the irritatingly intense machinegunfire of multi-voiced cacophony, to the beautifully emotive stilted silence which makes for a haunting background noise to the whole piece. As always the valiant overuse of swearing adds essential colour to the dingiest of shadows. Though the disgraceful underuse of any musical score or other accompaniment is simply an unqualified triumph for the twin failures that are self-confidence and self-discipline.
Overall, The Year so Far is a compellingly banal yet disturbingly enjoyable experience that defies classification.*
[and so scores a middle of the road 3 out of 5 sparkling neurons]
*Unless you happen to use a workable classification system that has scope to reference Metaclassical Post-Historical de-Reconstitued Unmagical non-Realism.
Comments
I am deeply moved by this film...actors, setting, story line, and...above all....the musical score. Cannot find anything about the latter and would like to buy a CD of it, if available. Also, any information about the composer. Please help, if you can. Thank you.
Blanche Pavlis
Posted by: Blanche Pavlis at August 29, 2006 01:23 AM