FILM-FORWARD.COMReviews of Recent Independent, Foreign, & Documentary Films in Theaters and DVD/Home Video
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An impeccably dressed, upwardly mobile woman with a face of a
Renaissance Madonna, Esther (de Van), strolling in a dark backyard during
a networking party, stumbles. It is only later she sees blood on a
carpet and realizes her leg has been severely cut. Yet, she asks her
friends out for a nightcap before she sees a doctor. At work, she’s asked by
her supervisor to make corrections in her report. She instead proceeds to an
isolated dark corridor and cuts herself, further mutilating her leg. Her
obsession with her wounds is genuinely shocking and stomach turning, as
the film becomes unflinchingly graphic. Renting a cheap hotel room alone,
she’s vacantly blissful stroking her face with a knife. But her behavior is not
quite a cry for help. She confesses or admits to the cuttings to a female
colleague and her handsome boyfriend (Lucas), but dismisses their concern saying
she won’t do it again. Although there is a subplot involving the competitive
nature of her profession and the impending cohabitation with her boyfriend,
Esther’s motivation is superficial. Actually, the character is a sketch, not a
full-fledge portrayal, in comparison to last year’s angry and self-destructive
figure in The Piano Teacher. What could have been a sharp short
film is instead an endless display of masochism that’s hard to watch, even
for the most stalwart filmgoer. Kent Turner
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