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Reviews of Recent Independent, Foreign, & Documentary Films in Theaters and DVD/Home Video
THE TALENT GIVEN US
Sometimes there's nothing more insufferable than being confined with
members of your own flesh and blood. But rather than devising a
fictional family to portray this therapy-inducing phenomenon, director
Andrew Wagner uses his own family to bring his
screenplay to life. Mollified by crossword puzzles and TV shows, Judy and Allen Wagner, a retired Upper West Side couple, daily
struggle with aging bodies, a dwindling sex life and retirement. Amidst it all,
Judy is suffering from the loss of a family bond that can only be
rekindled in old home movies. So when the couple embarks upon
a weekend family trip with their two unmarried, thirty-something daughters, Emily
and Maggie, Judy impulsively orders Allen to keep driving all the
way to California so they can reunite with long-estranged
son Andrew.
Through
daughter Emily's rants about her body to impromptu family therapy
sessions and Allen's ailments, The Talent Given Us walks the fine line between
documentary and
fiction, and thanks to the Wagner family's convincing acting and
uninhibited candor, the experience of the film is much closer to that
of the former. And because of this very quality, the movie, shot on video, has plenty
of anti-climactic, prolonged moments, just like in life.
But many of its comedic scenes, like Judy and Allen's multiple attempts at
sex, bypass funny and become somehow heart wrenching.
Andrew Wagner relishes in filling his every frame with both the
triviality and vitality. And while his parents may seem
like mere victims of Andrew's merciless camera work, the couple's
disputes and reconciliations surprisingly steal the show and
clarify the purpose of their son's film: that within mundane and trivial struggles are brief everyday moments of happiness and beauty. Marie Iida
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