Sai and Shujath talk Cinema

This is a lesser known film which was released last year starring Richard Gere and Juliette Binoche. In fact the reason I rented this was only because I found the DVD cover very appealing. This movie is actually quite complex and fuzzy but at the end I guess I quite liked it.

The story is about a normal family…mom, dad and two kids (played by Max Minghella and Flora Cross). Gere plays a professor who is very obsessed with the teachings of a certain Jewish philosopher. Unconciously, he tries to rub this on each of his family members throughout….but things suddenly start to change when his daughter tops the school spelling bee (personally, I don’t really understand why there is a contest like a spelling bee and why so many people are obsessed about it); which makes him take overzealous steps in training his daughter for future contests…the primary reason for this being that he is able to see his daughter give shape to his personal beliefs. This overbearing attention given to the daughter slowly drives his son away who slowly rebels by trying out other faiths. Meanwhile his wife (Juliette Binoche) who has traumatic memories of her parents death displays some mysterious behaviour….I felt that Binoche’s characterization was really the lowpoint of the film because it is really tough to provide a plausible explanation of her behaviour even at the end. The daughter who has this ability to visualize any given word (thanks to some cool visual effects) is somehow able to figure out the cause of this family dysfunction and takes a bold (but predictable) step in the end to set things right.

The perfomances by each of the cast members is brilliant. Despite many flaws in this film, I rate this film well because of the themes it was trying to convey…sometimes we unconsciously impose things upon others or obsess over certain stuff without realizing the effect it has on people around us…by the time we realize this it’s probably too late. I would recommend that you watch this…even though you may not like it…..this surely will make you think long after the movie is over.