Reconstruction (2004)
Picture: B-
Sound: B- Extras: C+ Film: C+
Word had been good in advance on Christoffer Boe’s Reconstruction
(2004) including a few awards and the idea that it was something
different. Alex (Nikolai Lie Kaas) is a
photographer who falls deeply in love with Aimeé (Maria Bonnevie) and thinks
his life could be set. Then, he
somehow, she disappears and he lands up in another world where the same people
he knew do not recognize him. He is a
total stranger to her and even his own parents.
How did this happen?
Well, the film cops out with a Michelangelo Antonioni Blow Up
(1966, reviewed elsewhere on this site) conclusion, though it is never that
clever before, and very unoriginal in everything the screenplay can raid. Alfred Hitchcock’s Vertigo (1958) is
another big model, as well as other films those in the know will
recognize. Thus, the film works best
when the actors play their scenes convincingly, so much in fact that the film
was forgiven by too many for breaking no new ground. Having sat through all 90 minutes, which seemed much longer, that
buck stops here.
The anamorphically enhanced 2.35 X 1 image was shot on
both Kodak and Fuji stocks, though nothing remarkable is done with them. The Dolby Digital 5.1 mix is not bad, but a
DTS version would not have improved matters much. At least it was not ambience sound and digital shooting. Extras include interviews with Boe and the
leads in three solo segments, weblinks, the U.S. trailer and two others for two
more upcoming Palm titles. The other
problem with this film is when it cannot stick to the relationships; it seems
all involved become explicitly bored, which is additionally annoying. Maybe if they had become more excited and
creative, Reconstruction could have lived up to its reputation. Instead, it becomes a victim of its own
laziness and pretensions. Nothing like
a film that says it wants to question what reality is, than has zero to say
about it.
- Nicholas Sheffo
