[360 screens Saturday November 3rd at 7:20 pm and Sunday November 4th at 6:30 pm at the Cleveland Cinematheque.]
Review
by Bob Ignizio
At
the beginning of 360,
newly minted call girl Mirka (Lucia Siposová) tells us that a wise
man (Yogi Bera, as it turns out) once said, “when you come to a
fork in the road, take it”. She then goes on to wonder what might
have happened if she had taken a different fork at some point along
the way. Based on this opening, one might expect the film to go back
and examine her choices. Instead it turns into another one of those
“we're all connected” movies, with the connections in this case
having to do with infidelity (or at least the intent to commit
infidelity) that crosses both class and geographical boundaries.
After
an initial “interview” with her pimp in which she's accompanied
by her disapproving sister Anna (Gabriela Marcinkova), Mirka soon
gets her first client (Jude Law). He will eventually return home
to his wife (Rachael Weisz) who is herself having an affair with a
photographer (Juliano Cazarré). The photographer's wife (Maria Flor)
finds out about the affair and leaves him before moving on to a
potential encounter of her own. And so on and so on. Some of these
meetings result in sex, some do not, although either way nobody seems
particularly happy. The cast also includes Anthony Hopkins as a
father both hoping and dreading that a recently discovered body might
be that of his long missing daughter, and Ben Foster as a recovering
sex offender.
As
the film's title implies, the plot eventually comes full circle back
to Mirka and her sister. In real life if you find yourself going
around in circles, it means you're going nowhere and accomplishing
nothing besides wasting time. Such is the case with 360
as well. None of the vignettes are interesting, and while the
characters may well be connected to each other, it's doubtful any of
them will connect with audience members.
Evidently
screenwriter Peter Morgan thinks the interconnectedness theme is
enough to hold our attention. Unfortunately for him, we've already
seen it thoroughly explored in several movies in just the past decade
(CRASH, MAGNOLIA,
and BABEL to name a
few of the more prominent ones), so the novelty has worn off.
Director Fernando Meirelles (CITY OF GOD,
THE CONSTANT GARDENER)
seems to be working overtime to make up for the script's dullness by
pouring on the style, but no matter how many segments he splits the
screen into, what does it matter if there's nothing worth watching in
any of them? 2 out of 4 stars.
As published on Examiner.com
That was adeptly reviewed -- thanks! Also (your review) reminded me of another time bender, Go.
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