This will contain slight spoilers...
This wasn't an awful movie...but I don't think it's a wonderful look at the human condition either.
I'd like to like Melanie- but this woman is beyond all help. It's one thing to be a bit shy or awkward in trying to find new friends, settle into a new job, and that sort of thing. But, when you get to the point where you're nearly stalking a neighbor who clearly doesn't want to be your friend- how can most of us relate to that? How can I care or even get anywhere near sympathizing with a character that I want to reach through the screen and choke? I mean, wow- she's so utterly pathetic it's not even sad...it's beyond the point of it being sad.
In the end- not much happens. We see the most mundane aspects of her day. She folds some clothes and sits in her apartment. She's in class, simply refusing to get any of these brats in line. She's back at her apartment again sitting at a desk. It's just void of a lot of action. Which is fine, if we were getting a realistic character storyline here, but as I've said, I don't think she's all too realistic. I don't know that I've personally met anyone this frustratingly sad and pathetic. And her refusal to tell anyone the truth about how bad things are going. I didn't get it. She's so pathetic, she'll stalk her neighbor, but she suddenly has too much pride to be nice to the one co-worker who is trying to be friends with her? Too full of pride to even be honest with her own mother as to the troubles she's having? And that ending- Call me stupid, but I just didn't get it. She loses it and then sits in the back of her car as it drives itself? Over my head, I guess, but I wasn't sure what the message was.
The cheap quality to the video didn't help this film either. It looked to be shot on a midrange home camera of sorts. Maybe if the main character wasn't so unlikeable for her sheer lack of ANY social skills, the film would have overcome the limitation in video quality, but I don't the story did that. Being socially awkward or downright inept doesn't always turn you off from a character- outright stalking, in my view, does. Being a weirdo makes it hard to sympathize with you, and much harder to feel sorry for you.
This wasn't an awful movie...but I don't think it's a wonderful look at the human condition either.
I'd like to like Melanie- but this woman is beyond all help. It's one thing to be a bit shy or awkward in trying to find new friends, settle into a new job, and that sort of thing. But, when you get to the point where you're nearly stalking a neighbor who clearly doesn't want to be your friend- how can most of us relate to that? How can I care or even get anywhere near sympathizing with a character that I want to reach through the screen and choke? I mean, wow- she's so utterly pathetic it's not even sad...it's beyond the point of it being sad.
In the end- not much happens. We see the most mundane aspects of her day. She folds some clothes and sits in her apartment. She's in class, simply refusing to get any of these brats in line. She's back at her apartment again sitting at a desk. It's just void of a lot of action. Which is fine, if we were getting a realistic character storyline here, but as I've said, I don't think she's all too realistic. I don't know that I've personally met anyone this frustratingly sad and pathetic. And her refusal to tell anyone the truth about how bad things are going. I didn't get it. She's so pathetic, she'll stalk her neighbor, but she suddenly has too much pride to be nice to the one co-worker who is trying to be friends with her? Too full of pride to even be honest with her own mother as to the troubles she's having? And that ending- Call me stupid, but I just didn't get it. She loses it and then sits in the back of her car as it drives itself? Over my head, I guess, but I wasn't sure what the message was.
The cheap quality to the video didn't help this film either. It looked to be shot on a midrange home camera of sorts. Maybe if the main character wasn't so unlikeable for her sheer lack of ANY social skills, the film would have overcome the limitation in video quality, but I don't the story did that. Being socially awkward or downright inept doesn't always turn you off from a character- outright stalking, in my view, does. Being a weirdo makes it hard to sympathize with you, and much harder to feel sorry for you.