Empty Spaces

The main thing that prevents the viewer from getting into this, or at least for me, was the completely pointless chopped up editing and the camera going into weird angles. All it does is disrupt the continuity, although what masquerades as a plot here really meanders to nowhere. The music is annoying and in no way matches up with the onscreen action, for lack of a better word. The few positives here don't counteract all the other amateur ploys they use to try and draw the viewer in. I don't appreciate when they waste ten minutes to hammer a point home that could have been made in one minute. No, nothing works here. More art house crap.

The beauty in this film lies in both its simplicity and its sheer realism. It tells a seemingly straightforward story about a man at a turning point in his life, his actions and feelings and how they affect those around him. The camera lingers on the actors long after most directors would have called "cut!" And the story is all the better for it. We see those in-between moments, and at times the angst and the emotion feels all too real. There are no metaphors in real life, and it's the same in this film. It feels almost like a documentary, and you start to wonder if the people on the screen are really even acting, or just living out their lives while we watch.

Actually, I was not expecting to like this one as much as I did. It is a very low budget drama with only a few actors, but it is well done for what it is. There are no gimmicks here, just good old fashioned storytelling.

It is the story of a man who is dealing with a bit of a crisis in his life. At first, I kept waiting for something major to happen, but I realized pretty quickly that this was not that find of film. Instead, we get a glimpse into the real life of this man and those around him. It feels like a documentary at times, and its strength is in its simplicity.

The acting is pretty good for the most part, although there are moments when it is not so great. Some of the best acting actually comes from the two child actors, strangely enough. The film feels slow at moments, but overall it's really good and I liked it a lot. Some people will undoubtedly find it boring, so consider yourselves warned.

There's a certain subtlety to the main actor's performance as his character goes through life pretending everything is o.k., saying he's fine when really he is not. It's the sort of thing you will only pick up on if you've been through it yourself.

He's trying to keep it together for his kids, but he doesn't know quite how to proceed with his life now that his wife has left him and so much has changed. That's where the title comes from. He has "empty spaces" in his daily routine because he has forgotten how to live without his partner.

But everything is not o.k. like he wants it to be and things gradually begin to deteriorate, leading to a psychotic episode involving a garbage disposal. Other than that, he only verbally hints once or twice at the fact that he is suffering inside. Men don't really like to talk about things like that, and this one is no exception. Instead he does what so many of us have done in his situation: he drinks and he drinks.

There's no big climax or clear resolution here and the future for these characters is left open-ended and somewhat ambiguous, as is so often the case in real life. The audience isn't left with hope or a happy ending or anything like that, or maybe they are depending on what they choose to take away from it. I suggest you watch it twice, because the second time around you just might pick up on a few things you missed the first time.

OK, so I will get this out of way and say that yes, this film does have some audio issues, but they are small and forgivable, and so did "Come and See," which is nonetheless considered a masterpiece. So we can move past that. Now, very often I overhear people talking about a film with a heart, which is to say that it moved them in some way. Well "Empty Spaces" is a film with a brain like no other that I've seen in a long time. It does not dumb anything down for the audience, but at the same time it tells a simple story. The brothers don't call each other "brother," and if we don't figure it out on our own then we simply don't figure it out. Nothing gained, nothing lost, just as it should be. And yet the plot is so simple, in fact, that it turns out to be exceedingly clever in its simplicity. It pulls no punches, as the saying goes. Unfortunately, I do not believe that many other viewers, not ever those who enjoyed this film, understood its entire meaning. It is such a unique viewing experience that most were undoubtedly caught up in the novelty of the thing. Truly, the director never cuts away from the action (or inaction) of the main character, when literally any other director would. It may come across as slow or boring to some, but it is in fact hypnotic. There is so much subtext in what is left unsaid. I have seen this film three times, and each time it is a different film, because each time I pick up on something new. It is truly fascinating.