Stars: Jean-Baptiste Phou
Director: Rithy Panh
Oscar History: 1 nomination (Best Foreign Language Film-Cambodia)
Snap Judgment Ranking: 2/5 stars
It’s hard to condemn certain movies, it really is. You want to applaud their
inventiveness, you want to celebrate that they are bringing light to an
uncomfortable topic. So frequently
we have the same set of pictures at our local cineplexes, and when something
unique and different comes along, I truly want to support that. This is why I left The Missing Picture with a heavy heart.
The Khmer Rouge and their role in the Cambodian genocide is not a
subject that American cinema and filmgoers is accustomed to, at least they
haven’t been in thirty years. The
most famous movie about this era is of course The Killing Fields from 1984, which was nominated for seven Academy
Awards, including Best Picture (this is probably in the Top 10 films from the
80’s that I’m ashamed I’ve never caught).
This movie attempts quite valiantly to inspire both knowledge and
disgust with Pol Pot and this period in Cambodian history, and it’s difficult
to not feel that pain when you hear about such atrocities. However, the subject matter doesn’t
make the film interesting. The
reality is that the story is quite repetitive, becoming more the random musings
of a survivor than any sort of structure.
The film makes several insights, and I do appreciate that it goes with a
musing, almost wandering narrative, but that results in him saying the same
things over-and-over. We are left
with little to glean from the experiences on-screen, and instead spend most of
our time checking our cell phones for the time (though only ninety minutes, the
film proceeds at a glacial pace).
I will say that the clay figures work almost all of the time. At the beginning you almost wonder if
the film is animated, and the clay figures frequently give a faceless but at
the same time deeply personal connection to the story. I loved the way that he took his time
with pushing the figures to different ends, and the way that he incorporated
what likely is a very therapeutic art into the actual production of the
film. The movie occasionally veers
into the silly (one of the figurines flies through the air in a moment you
could feel the entire audience trying not to giggle), but as a whole this is
easily the best reason to recommend such a picture.
Overall, though, I left desperately seeking more. I get the appeal to art house audiences
(and the subject matter clearly resonates with AMPAS voters), but I just
couldn’t sign up for it. I am
obviously in the minority, though, so what were your thoughts on The Missing Picture? What am I missing? And where does it rank, with only two
more films to go, with the 2013 OVP?
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