Think about worst possible terrible thing you did quite a long time ago. The horrendous act which there is no way any one might even know it at all, even your best friend. May be people had the suspicion but they discard it immediately thinking about the posture you have developed in present. This particular incident should be something which does not bother you daily but comes up and whenever it does, you think being the one and only evil person alive. Now to whomever the resultant pain, anger or horror caused, can you go and apologize for it? Or may be accept it to your best friend? “Tape” is the chance to be confessed and may be forgiven or pay the price.
How many times we thought have said and did things which at that moment did not feel a big deal. Of course we had fun but except for a sociopath and if there exists conscience, we feel wrong. But brain has a perfect functionality of getting on with life. Times roll by and we make a living for us. As every one says, we change into a complete different person. We say that the person who did that mistake is some one else. We aloof ourselves from that and I thought of it as something to brush upon the edges. Past goes on but it still remains. People move on, but the stain exists. Vincent (Ethan Hawke) is in motel room trying to invoke that from his good old friend John (Robert Sean Leonard). As any high school memories Vincent has took the incident to heart wherein John slept with his then ex-girl friend, Amy (Uma Thurman). But is that the only thing? It is just the tip of the ice berg. Things unravel and the play opens up to interesting plots in this livened performance of these three actors.
Richard Linklater has consistently directed movies with philosophy, high school dizzy fun, romance, and music and rocked it on target. We see him adapt very well to the script he is been presented. He maintains his creativity and eases up the actors to do what they do the best. The movie could have faltered even if one of the characters slightly slipped into a different approach of not being true to their behaviour. Hawke’s Vincent stays true to the skin of being the pot dealing jerk till the end. Leonard’s John is a different person from the high school kid he was and faces the music. And Thurman’s Amy is the riddle of all and she remains like that till the last second she gets out of the motel room. These are some fine performances with very close monitoring of their slightest movements and reactions to other actors. As much as the plot, dialogues and screenplay makes it a knocker of a movie, the performance earns up to it.
Linklater in his “Before Sunrise” brought the conversational movie which gets into the circuitous one without any resolve of its own. As John, it is pompous and bombastic. John does it to cover up that person he thought have left in the high school but lives with it, sub consciously. Vincent is in every way opposite of John or may be they both were same till high school and just that Vincent remained an interesting jerk all his life time. Initially we think of Vincent pinning continuously on John to let the incident out on something to get back on him. John wants him to be better but in a way being complacent about his betterment than Vincent. The discussion of perspective is philosophical and also intriguing. It comes down to what each one accepts and owns to themselves. But Vincent’s is good argument but not the right one in a perspective.
I was stunned when the film took a “Rashomon” oriented turn. The perspective again takes its form. If you realize that the horrible thing you did, throughout this years did not affect any one at all or is only been in your head, then perplexing mind is left. The film knocks us down, then lifts up and again knocks us down. When everything is over, we feel relieved but also enjoyed the kick out of it.
What can be done when the person owns up to the mistake and completely feels sorry? Do you still turn him in? If the people affected by it are ready to forgive, can the law take a back seat? After all, law is formed for the good of the people and everything got resolved smoothly, what is the need of it, right? Or may be not. What happens to the balance and equality in treatment? See now I am going circuitous again with my statements. You may not get a conclusion but it’s worth the discussion. May be at the end of it, you will call that old school mate to apologize.
How many times we thought have said and did things which at that moment did not feel a big deal. Of course we had fun but except for a sociopath and if there exists conscience, we feel wrong. But brain has a perfect functionality of getting on with life. Times roll by and we make a living for us. As every one says, we change into a complete different person. We say that the person who did that mistake is some one else. We aloof ourselves from that and I thought of it as something to brush upon the edges. Past goes on but it still remains. People move on, but the stain exists. Vincent (Ethan Hawke) is in motel room trying to invoke that from his good old friend John (Robert Sean Leonard). As any high school memories Vincent has took the incident to heart wherein John slept with his then ex-girl friend, Amy (Uma Thurman). But is that the only thing? It is just the tip of the ice berg. Things unravel and the play opens up to interesting plots in this livened performance of these three actors.
Richard Linklater has consistently directed movies with philosophy, high school dizzy fun, romance, and music and rocked it on target. We see him adapt very well to the script he is been presented. He maintains his creativity and eases up the actors to do what they do the best. The movie could have faltered even if one of the characters slightly slipped into a different approach of not being true to their behaviour. Hawke’s Vincent stays true to the skin of being the pot dealing jerk till the end. Leonard’s John is a different person from the high school kid he was and faces the music. And Thurman’s Amy is the riddle of all and she remains like that till the last second she gets out of the motel room. These are some fine performances with very close monitoring of their slightest movements and reactions to other actors. As much as the plot, dialogues and screenplay makes it a knocker of a movie, the performance earns up to it.
Linklater in his “Before Sunrise” brought the conversational movie which gets into the circuitous one without any resolve of its own. As John, it is pompous and bombastic. John does it to cover up that person he thought have left in the high school but lives with it, sub consciously. Vincent is in every way opposite of John or may be they both were same till high school and just that Vincent remained an interesting jerk all his life time. Initially we think of Vincent pinning continuously on John to let the incident out on something to get back on him. John wants him to be better but in a way being complacent about his betterment than Vincent. The discussion of perspective is philosophical and also intriguing. It comes down to what each one accepts and owns to themselves. But Vincent’s is good argument but not the right one in a perspective.
I was stunned when the film took a “Rashomon” oriented turn. The perspective again takes its form. If you realize that the horrible thing you did, throughout this years did not affect any one at all or is only been in your head, then perplexing mind is left. The film knocks us down, then lifts up and again knocks us down. When everything is over, we feel relieved but also enjoyed the kick out of it.
What can be done when the person owns up to the mistake and completely feels sorry? Do you still turn him in? If the people affected by it are ready to forgive, can the law take a back seat? After all, law is formed for the good of the people and everything got resolved smoothly, what is the need of it, right? Or may be not. What happens to the balance and equality in treatment? See now I am going circuitous again with my statements. You may not get a conclusion but it’s worth the discussion. May be at the end of it, you will call that old school mate to apologize.
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