Kira’s Reason
Picture: C
Sound: C+ Extras: D Program: B-
Oh, that Dogme movement.
A bunch of European directors decide they are above Film and thing they
are anti-Hollywood by shooting no-budget features on videotape (low-definition
yet) and they are suddenly giants of cinematic art? I don’t think so!
The movement is now dead, as if it had any life to start,
with many of the works just arriving to home video now. Though most were elongated exercises in
pretension that were spectacularly arrogant in their execution, could they all
be bad? Well. Ole Christian Madsen’s
work, Kira’s Reason is not as bad as most. However, it still hits most
of the pitfalls.
Stine Stengade is impressive as the title character, a
married woman who is suddenly running into major personal troubles. Her husband (Lars Mikkelsen) is exemplary, a
good provider, lover, caretaker, decent guy.
It is obvious throughout the entire 94 minutes of this exercise that he
is NOT the problem in any way, shape, or form.
No man-bashing clichés here.
They are even actively sexual, which is demonstrated early on.
Trouble looms as Kira suddenly starts acting oddly and
seems strung-out emotionally. The
circumstances get so bad that she has to be put into a mental ward, but that does
not seem to help much. As a matter of
fact, she is not only diagnosed incorrectly, it seems as if she was not
diagnosed at all! If she was, this is
left elsewhere so the camera can do many wanna-be Bergman/Altman-styled
close-ups of her and those she affects in serious moments of “drama”. Even if they could call it some kind of
post-traumatic stress thing, bi-polar illness, burgeoning schizophrenia, or
even brain damage form poisoning, this work seems to use the illness as an
excuse for drama. That’s an idiot plot
device!
Still, Stengade is amazing to watch, so I will not fault
Madsen on that point, but add the sex and the groundlessness and you have the
European equivalent of a cable film.
Oh, and on tape! Mikkelsen is
equally convincing as a husband who really has it together, but this can only
hold together so long. They are both
beautiful people in their 30s, aging quite gracefully, but the counterpoint is
about having everything and that not being enough. As I watched, the thought occurred that this could have made a
great actual film with better development and actual film use. Too bad more Dogme films could not have even
been this good, but that’s all history now.
The full screen, color image was shot in PAL format and
looks decent, but has the usual flaws associated with the format. The element used is clean and looks fine for
what it is. The Dolby Digital 2.0
Stereo is a recent recording, but with the Dolby logo in the credits, that
indicates that this should play at least in Pro Logic surround, even if this
DVD offers no 5.1 AC-3 mix. However,
that is not the case and the sound is more limited than it should be. A brief bio of Madsen, photo gallery and trailer
of the film (with some other First Run trailers) are the only extras.
Though the program itself is quickly forgotten, the actors
remain memorable and interesting enough that this critic wants to see them
again. More Dogme is likely on the way
to home video, but I doubt much more of it will be any better than Kira’s
Reason. It reminds us that even
failed experiments have some interesting aspects, but this is one of the few in
this case, so now you know.
- Nicholas Sheffo
