In 2001 two miners in Vietnam have a passionate love affair as one of them plots to leave the country for a better life somewhere else.
This is a jumbled art house film where every moment is dripping with meaning and artistic pretension. Nothing just is, everything means something. The arrangement all means something. This is a film that has a lot to say, like a director making his first film and who isn't certain he'll ever make another so he throws everything into it. Unfortunately little of it sticks together. There is the gay romance, the desire to leave the country, class struggle, the desire to find lost loved ones from the war, religion, and about 19 other things.Everything takes center stage for a moment and then is dropped. It's never clear what it all means because nothing ties together.
The performances are all zombie like. The notion of everyone being dead inside makes the film hard to watch because the film has a single tone. There is no life, only dead people. The dead eyed performances make even the sex scenes dull. While there seems to be passion, the facial expressions undercut it.
It doesn't help that the film now and again shifts to the metaphorical, not because the film needs it but because the filmmakers want to oversell the moment. The final sequence for example looks lovely and is heartbreaking but it kind of is just out there unconnected to anything.
I never cared.
While very well made, the film is so messy narratively and thematically I can't believe it's getting so much festival love. I understand this is the director's personal tale and statement, but it's so personal it means nothing to anyone else.
A bust.
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