Director: Carlos Reygadas
Year Released: 2007
Rating: 2.5
A Mennonite father of six children is having an affair with another woman and wants to cut off the affair but can't bring himself to do it - as his father advises, you can't keep both, so one has to be chosen. Although the cinematography is gorgeous and eccentric - as in Reygadas' earlier two films - this is lacking the intellectual and spiritual force of Dreyer's Ordet, which this film has the moxie to reference in act three, although unlike Dreyer's masterpiece, the wooden performances (by non-professionals) and extended takes don't add up to any kind of enlightenment or profound statement about faith. Surely Reygadas has to be aware that his target audience for this is aware of the reference, so his decision to have this rather belabored, self-conscious picture book end on the same miracle is either brave or stupid, depending on how drawn into this movie's world you are. Reygadas is a superb visualist - and will one day make a masterpiece - but I have yet to be convinced he knows that holding his shots longer than normal doesn't necessarily make them more poetic and meaningful.
