Jumping Off Bridges

Rarely do I vote a film a 10. 10's for me tend to feature Ed Norton (because he's a fantastic actor) or Naomi Watts (because I'm hopelessly in love). The screening experience I had at the South by Southwest Film Festival Premier of JUMPING OFF BRIDGES was special because, from someone whose dealt with a friend committing suicide in the past, the reactions from the story's characters are appropriate, touching, and accurate. The acting was one of my favorite aspects of the film, along with the genuine feeling that these four friends are struggling with a, once unheard of and definitely unexpected, tragedy. After the film, a question was asked from the audience regarding the current state of the four main characters that the film was based on. Witnessing the director and writer of the film nearly breakdown due to the emotional toll of the lead character, Zack, passing away earlier this year, touched the hearts of the entire audience. Once again, I vote 10 out of 10 for JUMPING OFF BRIDGES because if you can relate to the story at all, then it will touch your heart...advice you on how hard, but necessary it is to cope with those sad situations that life sometimes throws you.

I got to watch this at SXSW (3-11-06), and it was certainly a breath of fresh air. Most mainstream movies are glazed over with frosting. A lot of indie movies seem to stress unnecessarily long scenes with witty sarcasm. Jumping Off Bridges seemed to contain neither of those elements, because life isn't the way it is in movies.

The technical aspects of the movie are easy to handle. The costumes certainly looked real. When I saw the dad in his classroom, I giggled because everyone one of my math teachers dressed just the same. No one in the movie had hip, trendy clothes, and none of them looked alike. The neighborhood that everyone lived in was very much a normal neighborhood. Most movies seem to want to have everyone live in $200,000 homes where everyone has expensive cars and an endless supply of money. The students weren't driving Hummers, Lexus', or Range Rovers. The camera-work was pretty decent, coming from a photographer who pays extra attention to cropping, angles, lighting situations, depth of field, etc. The sound was also very good, especially the original music -- I love piano. The editing was also very good, coming from an editor who also pays close attention to editing in movies.

If you want movies like The Notebook, Forest Gump, Dumb and Dumber, crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon, then you won't like this movie.

If you want movies like Pieces of April, Broken Flowers, I Am Sam (Sean Pess should have won the Oscar that year), then you will probably like this movie.

I first thought it was a Canadian film. I had no idea until I read the credits that it was filmed entirely on location in Austin, Texas. This film is quite a gem and treasure about the relationships between a father and son, Frank and Zak Nelson, after the suicide death of the family matriarch. Zak blames himself as does Frank for her death. The father and son moments in the film are alone worth watching. There is no glamor with this largely unknown cast. They do a brilliant job worthy of awards. Zak becomes withdrawn from his girlfriend and his friends as well as his father. He paints his room black to symbolize his mourning. It isn't until a life-changing experience that determines how to live after a family tragedy.

This movie is not only worth seeing it is in my opinion a must see. Rarely do I see a film that tackles the topic of suicide and the aftermath of what a suicide creates like Kat Candler's "Jumping off Bridges". I have had several opportunities to view the film and I have always been amazed at how this film gets people talking. In my mind that is what a good film does; it gets your mind moving and you mouth open and your eyes a little tear filled. OK, the tears aren't a requirement for a good film but this film does all that. I can't imagine why anyone wouldn't want to see this film and to share it with others. If you are in the market for a film that will create discussion about one of societies last know taboos "suicide" then this is your movie. Watch it!

It stands to reason, I suppose, that a movie about depression is one of the most depressing movies I've ever seen. JUMPING OFF BRIDGES, which aired last night on Reel 13, adds insult to injury, however, by not even being a good movie about depression. It is slow, boring, quiet, sparse, ill-conceived and with one exception, poorly acted. I was counting the minutes until it was over (I suppose I could have turned it off, but something in my DNA insists that I watch movies all the way through).

Overall, the downfall of JUMPING OFF BRIDGES is that it isn't very natural in any way. The unnaturally sparse production design can be forgiven in most indies – it's a byproduct of low budget cinema, but unnatural writing/performances are less justifiable. Chiefly, it is the quietness of the film that doesn't ring true. I've always suggested less is more, but director Kat Candler took that concept to an extreme and divorced the film from any energy or any sense of life surrounding the primary characters and hence left the film devoid of the verisimilitude that I believe she was aiming for.

The film deals with four teenagers who cope with a series of tragic events, but the kids don't seem to have any acting training, which can work out fine (see THE 400 BLOWS or May 17th's RAISING VICTOR VARGAS). However, given the emotional territory that these kids were asked to explore, I wonder that it wouldn't have benefited the film to cast young actors with more experience. The film is anchored by the fine performance of Michael Emerson as the father of the main boy. He seems to be the only real actor in the film. While he is best known for his work on LOST, I personally still can't get his performance as Oscar Wilde in the 1997 off-Broadway play GROSS INDECENCY out of my head. As good as I know he is, I still see his Wilde in everything he does, which can be distracting.

Of course, none of the actors are helped by the awfully simplistic writing – there's very little complexity or depth to the scenes. It seems to me that Ms. Candler, who also served as the screenwriter, had a mission or a point to make before she had a story to tell. In other words, I suspect that her life or family has been touched with issues of depression and suicide and she had something to say about it; something to tell the world and she shaped her story around that concept. One has to be careful when approaching a project that way because one can get so wrapped up in what they want to preach that they neglect the basics of strong storytelling. The result is what you get with JUMPING OFF BRIDGES – a glorified after-school special.

(For more information on this or any other Reel 13 film, check out their website at www.reel13.org)