It's All About Love

I loved "The Celebration" and was very disappointed when I saw this at Sundance. In brief, this suffers from the same delusion as "Eyes Wide Shut": namely that implication = meaning. There is implied tension, implied sexuality and an implied conspiracy, none of which are delved into, and a barrage of imagery that is neither satisfactorily abstract nor clearly explicated. Joaquin Phoenix is too passive to be much of a lead and Claire Danes, while beautiful, lacks depth. The picture IS gorgeous, and kudos to the DP and design team.

This remains a strange notion, although it has inspired several features by now (there's one of those burlesque X Files episodes with a similar motif), but Vinterberg fetches it far, far out.

OK, inhale... Could it be that we're doing more damage to the environment, not just by keeping our heavy industries and disposing of toxic waste but, actually, through coldness, indifference and alienation from each other? Is the coldness of heart somehow projected on to the earth's gravitation field and climate, causing bizarre atmospheric anomalies, eventually bringing the next ice age upon humanity? If that is the case, there must be a critical number of couples in love, who are somehow radiating there emotions, and thus, keeping the global climate in balance. Should it fall below the critical value, the nature will retaliate, turning us all into icicles!?

Could this be the reason, the Marchevsky's (Danes, Phoenix) become so important for the plot? Maybe, they're this critical couple, whose emotions happen to determine the course of possible cataclysmic events, also making them a target of some vague conspiracy. If Elena fails to get back with John, her clonettes are trained to fill in for her, whether as a loving wife or an ice skating champion. Basically, the script has so many loose ends that you could go on speculating forever, which is ok, if the director's actual intention was to provoke speculation.

Also, while I was watching it, the monotonous pace and a chilling atmosphere made me half asleep, except for a few unexpected lines in my native language uttered by one of the clonettes.

To sum up - intriguing idea, beautiful art direction/photography, decent acting, disastrous script. So, if you happen to be a speculator, environmentalist, climatologist, or particularly keen on the idea of 'reversed meteoropathy' (there's probably a more suitable term for this), It's All About Love should be interesting for you. Otherwise, be patient and wait for the next attempt by this undoubtedly talented director.

If Dogville shows the new directions taken by Director Lars von Trier since Dogme, It's All About Love shows the very different creativity of Dogme co-founder Thomas Vinterberg.

John (Joaquin Phoenix) is planning to meet his wife Elena between flights in order to have divorce papers signed. Their marriage has broken down some years ago. It is as if their 'calendars are written in different languages.' Things are not what they seem. And things don't go as planned.

It's All About Love is set in the near future but defies the sci-fi or any other genre tag. Attention is focussed on the title, what love is really about. What happens when a relationship ends? When you still ‘love' someone but no longer want to be part of each other's world? When the other person seems like almost another person to the one you knew? It's All about Love looks at parallel emotional dislocation and its extension into the physical world, a world near the brink of cosmic collapse. It contains images of stunning beauty and is also jarring and artistically innovative. It's probably also the quirkiest movie since David Lynch's Mulholland Drive.

Well

Where do you begin on such a film? First thing to point out, if you wish to save yourself £3.50, then read this first.

Several words can sum up this film. 'Pointless' 'Weird' 'Strange' the list would continue until I run out of negative expressions.

It all starts with a character called John, (Joaquin Phoenix) who flies to New York to meet up with his wife called Elena (Claire Danes) . The purpose of the meeting is nothing more then to get divorce papers signed. However he is met by two of his wife's entourage, and he is taken back to her hotel, and is forced to endure a night at the ice skating.

His wife is a world famous figure skater, last time I looked this sport was as popular as synchronized swimming, however for the purposes of the film, it's as popular as the world cup, and she as a sports personality has world wide fame and recognition that David Beckam would be envious off.

Anyway, long story short, she is well past her sale by date in the sport, and her team are replacing her with Elena Clones. Sounds stupid, and is. The reason for this is because without her, they are all unemployed and unemployable (just as they should be as a collective group of actors)

John is clueless to the entire situation until he meets one of the clones wielding a knife at him, and it's only when Elena's Brother called Michael, grows a spine and tells John of the Teams plans.

As for Sean Penn who plays Johns Brother in the film, well I am still trying to understand his part in the overall story, in my opinion Sean Penn is one of the worst actors I have ever seen, and this justified my opinion further.

In conclusion, Elena does not die at the hands of her management team, rather she opts to die with her husband in the middle of nowhere in freezing conditions, so, actually opting for a much more painful prolonged death, (her clones were all shot), her Husband John dies as well, again, freezing to death, her brother Michael also dies in the forest, but he dies alone. We can only assume and hope that Sean Penn's character dies in the plane he is a passenger off, with him ending any possible chance of a sequel.

For those who express such a film as ART, or creative brilliance, you need to lay of the alcohol.

I went to see this film just a week ago as it has just been given a limited release in the U.K. I didn't have high hopes for the film due to the poor reviews. However when I saw it I was pleasently surprised by the great cinematography and the quirky storyline. This is by far one of the best films I have seen so far this year. 8/10

criminally underrated