Re-Generation

While the story may not be to everyone's taste, this movie has some things to admire. First off, it's the best looking non-HD digital film I've seen. The 35mm blow up looks terrific and I think the DP and producers deserve a lot of credit of achieving such a high quality look on what I'm sure was a meagre budget.

I also enjoyed the score. The composer is clearly someone who is or could be playing in the big leagues and his work lends a lot to the emotional impact of the film. And while the acting wasn't exceptional, it was solid throughout.

It's not clear how this unique film will fare in the marketplace but I think the creative team has accomplished a lot with it and have set themselves up for bigger budgets and projects.

Some of you may come across this offering in Netflix: It will be cast in the Sci-Fi category. Another name may be "Limbs for Sale"

It's set in the future.

There are a few, FEW instants of Sci-Fi props. You will count them on one hand. And that will be that.

Past that-- this is a Staged Play that takes place in a Tattered Canada of the future. It involves a traveling Surgeon, a northern Water Baron, and his not quite 'on the level' family and house retainers who look like Cloned 'Lurches'.

Isolation. Bleakness. Barely controlled emotions under the surface. Family Secrets. Personal Vices. Unsuspecting innocence-- or maybe not quite as Innocent as we would believe.

In a way-- it's a kind of Victorian drama played out in the future.

Many Mainstream viewers looking for a Sci-Fi boom-Zap-Pow WILL be turned off by this. There are no fights. There isn't even a Single gun. From the set in the Old House, the sedate setting, the neo-Edwardian costumes. . .even the CARS are old 70's models.

But the point is that this is a Future CONSTRAINED by climate change. Not quite Apocalyptic, although I would somewhat disagree with the dystopian label.

If you do pull this DVD, you MUST be in the mood for something slower and low octane. This movie is more of a literary flavor than the Sci-Fi label purports. I would slot this movie for a slow, rainy Sunday Afternoon. Give it a little time-- the Actors are putting serious dark energy into their performance and their professional touch is to be appreciated. And the Ending is actually. . .poetic.

Also-- this one is Girlfriend-Friendly. She will probably still be sitting on the couch when you get up now and then to hit the fridge.

I say Give it a chance.

In a snow-covered landscape? I really wanted to like this film but nearly EVERY scene dragged. Too hard to watch...

Definitely on the messy side but at least there seem to be some ideas behind this... they remain latent, however, and never really coming to the surface. Much of the film is terrible looking, not managing to escape the 'videoy' look throughout many shots... a very blown-out, over-exposed look much of the time. Fairly lame dialogue. Misguided acting.

This 'Ingrid Veninger' is surely one of the most unappealing actresses I've ever laid eyes on and I do not mean just in appearance. Not a good screen presence, to say the least. Peter Stebbings, however, seems to have some potential...

There seems to be a lot of diversity going on within the Canadian cinema community.... an eclectic mixture, definitely. Before long we'll begin to see some more really notable projects appearing if we continue to encourage experimentation and stray away from attempts at Hollywood emulation (Foolproof) and 'identity movies' (Men with Brooms)... This isn't exactly a notable movie in and of itself but the spirit of the thing should at least be commended.

The wildly varying reactions to this film in the few reviews already posted here seem to confirm one thing: it's why they make both chocolate AND vanilla. But I have to align myself firmly on the side of the positive postings. Three days after seeing it, I can still see many of the film's images very clearly -- and I'm already confident it's a film I'll be seeing again.

I was consistently intrigued by the world that Veninger, Granofsky & company created, and was impressed by how they managed in almost every case to turn low-budget necessities into creative virtues. I actually enjoyed the fact that we only heard about the "ice mines" and never saw them; and that we only caught glimpses of a futuristic city that didn't seem like a very nice place to visit, let alone live in.

While I still have a few unanswered questions I wouldn't have minded being clearer on, overall I found it strangely refreshing that I WASN'T being shown or told everything about this ironic, anachronistic future -- or that bizarre house, strangely suspended in both time and space -- but just enough to keep me wanting to see how the characters within it would fare. It's a kind of minimalist sci-fi that stays with you, sometimes long after the 50-million dollar CGI effects have faded from memory.

In some ways it reminded me of how I feel watching (or just thinking about) certain episodes of Rod Serling's original Twilight Zone series, and as Martha Stewart used to say, "That's a good thing".