Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Weird, post-modern, blackly-comic, but not bleak, 26 Jan 2007
This is a gem of film-weirdness. Failed actor, John Person (Jon Favreau), is contacted by a bizarre neighbour and instructed to take a blue suitcase to a desert town in the middle of nowhere and give it to 'the Cowboy'. Any beginning this odd clearly demands lots of explanation at the end of the film. However, alleged aliens, jail-bate, kidnapping, a decapitation, a shooting, and a bizarre desert scene with anorak-wearing people expecting to ascend into the heavens -- all this notwithstanding, the film never announces to you what it's actually about.
Some very good films can be read on a number of levels. This very good film is challenging to find even one level to read it on. There are plenty of discussion forums on the web expressing general bafflement.
So what is this film actually about? To some extent this is for you to decide for yourself. However, it is at least partly about second chances, starting again, breaking out of the rut. "I help people move on, John. Help them to escape their mundane lives. If you want to keep living your life of quiet desperation, that's up to you." Says Sean Bean's the Cowboy, both in the film and in one of the deleted scenes (helpfully provided to us on the DVD).
On the other hand, this is a sort of X-file written from the point of view of the characters who never find out what's going on. Kelsey Grammer, as Agent Banks, sits in the place of both Mulder and Scully at the end, creating excuses for all of the murders, deaths, disappearances and other general weirdness which could have left John Person in trouble. But he tells John Person that we won't say whether he believes him or not: "Maybe we do, maybe we don't", he says.
However, despite the weirdness, there is not one thread of randomness in the film. Key visual themes are carefully placed throughout. The blue suitcase, Gracie's eyes which turn blue at the end, the blue bowling ball, Ruthie (Rachael Leigh Cook)'s umbrella which is black on the outside, blue with clouds on the inside. The numbers 1111 keep coming back. Neely (Bud Cort) wears a neck brace and is later decapitated. Hick hotelier Elron (Jon Gries) tells John Person that aliens steal women's eggs through their necks. At the end of the film, Kelsey Grammar has an X-files style sticking-plaster on the back of his neck. John Person's van is a VW Camper, Randy (Adam Beach) has a junk yard full of VWs, mostly Beetles.
And then there are the names. John Person perhaps represents everyman, Gracie perhaps represents new chances. At a particular point, this is a film about which you can speculate endlessly.
Verdict: if you like all the loose-ends tied together, this is not a film you will enjoy. If you can suspend judgment, disbelief and just enjoy, this is a bafflingly enthralling film which you _will_ want to see more than twice, and which will leave you searching through the deleted scenes for enlightenment.
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1 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Subtle excellence, 7 Nov 2005
If you like off-beat humour, then this one's worth a look. Ok, so it plays in a region of the US I happen to love: I might just be a little biased. But no, what the heck - this movie was really enjoyable. For once there was nothing predictable about the plot. The humour is low-key and inward-looking in that manner that Americans seem to have learned from (dare I say it) British movies in recent years. Nothing brash, nothing cheap. Take a gamble with these films off the beaten track - it can be rewarding!
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