The End of Love: Not the New Terrence Malick
April 12th, 2013 § Leave a Comment
With a title as fatal sounding as a ponderous philosophical opus, this film carries such moments of spontaneous hope and beauty you forget that this is supposed to be a sad drama. Isaac Love, writer/director Marc Webber’s real life son, has to be in the running for one of the cutest goddamn kids on our blue sphere. He lights up and eats up the screen; moments caught on film have to be real as hell with this two-year-old, who doubtfully even the most seasoned of directors trained with children could direct to say those lines.
You do have to wonder if Isaac is actually getting confused in some of the scenes where a mother-figure is present. Pretty much all the scenes that seem scripted don’t have him present except the scenes with Shannyn Sossamon (who turns in one of her best performances), where the slip-ups occur. Is that a situation created so such naturalistic dialogue comes forth from the mouth of babes?
I don’t want to dig too deep as this is a film that’s best discovered at its own pace, at first being drawn in to the daily rhythm of Marc and Isaac. Would it be too cliche to say this film tugs at your heartstrings?
This film is a really unique experiment in quasi-autobiographical filmmaking that should be seen by all. You’ve seen weepy indie drama before, but not like this.
And look, if you’re looking for more of what we had last week, we literally have it. WRONG and THE AMITYVILLE HORROR continue alongside THE END OF LOVE. If you missed ’em, see ’em!
—drowning in films, I love my job, dan