Mind the Gap

A strikingly poignant examination of the role of forgiveness in our lives. Schaeffer has created a collage of memorable characters and provides the audience with ample reason to care for their fates. The dialog is crisp and meaningful, the characters are unique and memorable, and the film concludes balanced and cohesive.

The film managed to brush the very edge of my tolerance for adversity as each character faced with their personal demons, but never stepped past the threshold into contrivance or absurdity. The usual cliches and "movie" plot mechanisms were ably dodged and the ending was more than I'd expected and all I could have hoped for.

This is the film that Magnolia wishes it could have been.

This movie, while at first seems like a series of vignettes, ultimately connects to the watcher, and pulls you in, and then weaves a tale, thats heartbreaking, and heartwarming, all at the time. I was very impressed with all the performances. I will admit that I watched it solely because I am a Jill Sobule fan. Her performance was amazing in my opinion, but I was very drawn in and loved every minute of this film.

I think more people need to see it, and hopefully tell all their friends to see it. I can only hope.

Also, Elizabeth Reaser should be on everyones "to watch" list. I recently saw Stay as well, and she is amazing in that film. I cant wait to see what she does, and I hope that someday she will recognized for her talents.

At any rate, this movie is well done. Please see it, enjoy it, and be touched by it.

Some people may think that the fact that "Mind the Gap" was Alan King's last movie would be a simple incentive to see it. It turns out that the movie has a lot more in store. Portraying several oddballs on the verge of seeing change in their lives, it's sort of a more interesting version of Raymond Carver's stories (in "Short Cuts", they were alienated and stayed such). Some scenes are likely to tense you up, but that just goes to show that the movie is doing a really good job.

So, this was definitely a good end for Alan King. The only other cast member whom I recognized was John Heard, but the unknown cast doesn't diminish the movie's quality; on the contrary, it gives the movie a more realistic feeling. Definitely worth seeing.

I watched this movie in the middle of the night when I couldn't sleep. I had no idea what to expect, having never heard of the movie, and was pleasantly surprised.

What an amazing and diverse group of characters, all very complex. By the end I cared deeply for all of them.

The story lines were riveting and unpredictable. In the beginning, I couldn't imagine where this movie was going but it was a pleasure to watch it evolve.

I have not had a movie affect me like this in a very long time. Some very powerful and emotional messages....I highly recommend it and can't wait to see it again.

'Mind the Gap' is an enchanting spiritual quest by eccentric characters who by converging from the sylvan north, south, west and east to the gritty sidewalks of the island of Manhattan, face death, their own or a loved one's, in different ways and find salvation in accepting that no person is an island.

While each is as damaged from relationships as the motley crew in 'Italian for Beginners,' this is far more than a romantic quest as these oddballs, who we on a rotating basis very gradually learn how they got so damaged, cannot have real relationships, including between parents and children, until they solve their spiritual malaise to make a positive choice. Their physical health and sensual perceptions are also linked to their emotional and spiritual well-being.

While the film is very long as it leisurely follows these characters' twisted trajectories, the mostly strong acting (particularly by Alan King in what I presume was his last film role) and the intriguing situations and lively conversations keep us curious, though the precocious kids interact with the adults like Gilmore Girls.

Like 'Magnolia,' we gradually find that some of the characters are linked in disturbing ways, others by coincidence (asymptotically cute) of need, time and place, but unpredictably. As brutally frank about the weaknesses, cruelties and foibles of human nature as the former film, writer/director/producer/co-star Eric Schaeffer is less cynical and more hopeful than Paul Thomas Anderson, without resorting to incredible magic realism to restore faith.

While these characters literally face the notorious undertow of the waters of Spuyten Duyvil (spiting the devil, per Dutch folklore about the treacherous waters off the mainland) --and their uniform hatred of the NY Yankees-- to enter Manhattan, I didn't catch all the theological interpretations about the sins of the fathers to discern any particular philosophical consistency about forgiveness, including the Krishna Das tracks on the soundtrack. I do question the meaningfulness of a child granting forgiveness to an adult, but I think it's about the adults growing-up.

Co-star singer/songwriter Jill Sobule's "Bitter" (available both on her CD 'Happy Town' and the compilation 'I Never Learned to Swim: Jill Sobule 1990-2000') serves as the satisfying culmination; five other of her songs, not specifically written for the film, are also featured as commentary, as she plays an isolated busker with a literal broken heart.

Some recurring images I didn't quite get yet, particularly of a dancer in Times Square, perhaps going around and around at the crossroads of the world.

One of the most hopeful and uplifting movies I've seen in a long time, it will bring a smile to "mind the gap" every time I get on and off the subway -- the gap between reach and grasp, between nirvana and humanity.