[TRISHNA
opens in Cleveland on Friday July 27th exclusively at the Cedar Lee
Theatre.]
Review
by Bob Ignizio
A modern day fairy tale set in India,
TRISHNA gives us an
eponymous character (played by Freida Pinto, SLUMDOG
MILLIONAIRE) not all that
different from Cinderella. She catches the eye of Jay (Riz
Ahmed), son of a blind hotel magnate who has little interest in
following in his father's footsteps. Jay seems to fit the Prince
Charming role at first, helping Trishna get a job to support her
family after her father wrecks his jeep and can no longer work. At
first Trishna and Jay have a friendly, platonic relationship, but as
time goes on this Prince Charming slowly reveals a dark and
controlling side, perhaps with a violent streak as well.
Using
Thomas Hardy's novel Tess
of the D'Urbervilles
as its template, TRISHNA
is a tragedy in which the decent, innocent heroine finds herself
unable to escape her situation due to the constraints of society and
responsibility. Her father resents having to live off the money she
makes, but chastises her for quitting her job despite having very
good reasons. Jay, who at first seems to truly care about her, first
objectifies her, and then reduces her to little more than a
concubine. Every time it looks like Trishna will find some way out of
her dilemma on her own, some perceived obligation to one or the other
of these men in her life, neither of whom warrant such loyalty, pulls
her back.
The
film is written and directed by Michael Winterbottom, who has
directed two previous films (JUDE
and THE CLAIM) based
on Hardy's works. Clearly he finds something in the author's themes
about the harmfulness of social constraints that resonates with him,
and he does a good job of conveying those ideas on film. Nonetheless
there is one problem with TRISHNA,
and it is not an insignificant one: there just isn't much to its
heroine beyond her beauty and basic goodness. Pinto is such a vibrant
presence that she manages to imbue her character with some life, but
for the most part she's simply swept along by the plot, enduring her
misfortunes stoically right up to the end when she finally takes
control in the only way she thinks she can. 3 out of 4 stars.
As published on Examiner.com
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