FollowingFollowing is the first movie by Memento fame Chris Nolan and the movie gives you an idea where from does the direction style of Memento comes. In direction sense, Following could be said as a milder form of Memento. In the latter one always needed to remember what happened in the previous scene and how it started, this movie also has been cut into pieces but the jig saw puzzle leaves you with some link to correlate to other scenes. These links are often the artifacts used in the movie or the state of the actors which speak about the sequence of the movie. The pieces of movies are not exactly in a chronological order but the links help in getting the flow of the story. As in Nolan’s own words “In a compelling story of this genre we are continually being asked to rethink our assessment of the relationship between the various characters, and I decided to structure my story in such a way as to emphasize the audience's incomplete understanding of each new scene as it is first presented”. And as I mentioned the audience is left with some clue (physical artifacts or the state of actors) which help them link the whole story in their minds with the scenes shown without any order. Director takes out good work from all the actors. Jeremy Theobald and Alex Haw play their roles aptly and so does Lucy Russell. The way Lucy Russell has been dressed pushes you back in time and you don’t really understand which year the movie is from.
Following is a story of an obsessed writer who follows strangers in the street to get the subject for his novels. He gets addicted and start following the same people. He is manipulated by a criminal and used for his own means while the writer gets trapped in criminal charges which he did not commit. If you have already seen Memento you might wonder it some sort of liberation occurs to the writer but the story ends with plain truth of he getting acquitted for the crime. The background score is good and different. It keeps the interest intact with a little of annoyance in the mind. Annoyance is not as big as leaving the theatre but it does catch your attention.
The movie begins with the writer rather rhetorically saying “Following is my explanation”. The criminal mind ‘Cobb’ has been portrayed as a thief who doesn’t really steal for the gains by the artifacts, rather he enjoys breaking into the houses and assessing what the house and the artifacts in it tell about its owner. His assessment is rather enchanting and Alex Law does it so naturally that it truly shows how good an actor he is. The assessment about “Everybody has a box” and his philosophy of “You take it away…to show them what they had” all seems so correct and doesn’t questions ones moral about stealing. Nolan weaves a crisp story with well defined characters and beautifies it with his bona fide fashion of film making. Considering the budget of the movie the outputs which has come out is just brilliant. It indeed is a great start up for a good director.
Following is a story of an obsessed writer who follows strangers in the street to get the subject for his novels. He gets addicted and start following the same people. He is manipulated by a criminal and used for his own means while the writer gets trapped in criminal charges which he did not commit. If you have already seen Memento you might wonder it some sort of liberation occurs to the writer but the story ends with plain truth of he getting acquitted for the crime. The background score is good and different. It keeps the interest intact with a little of annoyance in the mind. Annoyance is not as big as leaving the theatre but it does catch your attention.
The movie begins with the writer rather rhetorically saying “Following is my explanation”. The criminal mind ‘Cobb’ has been portrayed as a thief who doesn’t really steal for the gains by the artifacts, rather he enjoys breaking into the houses and assessing what the house and the artifacts in it tell about its owner. His assessment is rather enchanting and Alex Law does it so naturally that it truly shows how good an actor he is. The assessment about “Everybody has a box” and his philosophy of “You take it away…to show them what they had” all seems so correct and doesn’t questions ones moral about stealing. Nolan weaves a crisp story with well defined characters and beautifies it with his bona fide fashion of film making. Considering the budget of the movie the outputs which has come out is just brilliant. It indeed is a great start up for a good director.
My Rating: 8.25/10.00
No comments:
Post a Comment