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Gerry (2003)
Posted by Digger, Apr 20, 2003
As someone who once drove four hours in the wrong direction through the New Jersey countryside I can attest that there's nothing quite as paralyzing as the realization that one is hopelessly lost. It's the sort of fear that only manifests itself after it's too late, when you're already a stranger in a strange land without a compass or kindly gas station attendant to point you in the right direction. The Blair Witch Project tapped into this zeitgeist, and for all the people who bitched about how "so not scary piles of rocks and sticks were" there were those such as myself who still shiver at the thought of Heather and the boys walking around in circles for hours.
Genre: Drama |
Cast: Matt Damon, Casey Affleck |
Director(s): Gus Van Sant |
Producer(s): Danny Wolf, Dany Wolf |
Writer(s): Gus Van Sant, Matt Damon, Casey Affleck |
Official Site: http://www.gerrythemovie.com/ |
Rated: R Langiage |
Length: 103 minutes | Released: Feb 14, 2003 |
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Stars: 2 out of 5
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The film Gerry deals with similar ideas but I wouldn't call it a horror film; there's more to it. Or is it less? I'm not entirely sure. I'm certainly not sure what the film's supposed to mean but I do know it's about two guys, both named Gerry and they're played by a couple of nobodies with the surnames Damon and Affleck (full disclosure: it's not Ben but his baby brother Casey- Mr. Damon, however, is exactly who you think) who go on a nature hike into the middle of the desert in search of a... thing and got lost along the way. Way lost. As the hours turn into days it slowly (very slowly) dawns on these two they might actually die out in the middle of nowhere.
The film was directed by Gus Van Sant who has spent so many years making misguided remakes of Hitchcock films and mawkish dramas about under-privileged, overly articulate youths that it's easy to forget that he used to be an avant-garde filmmaker of some notoriety. The film is a reunion of sorts for the gang behind Good Will Hunting, with not only the same director and actors (Affleck played Will's inept buddy Morgan in the film) but also Damon once again serving as one of the film's co-writers. Those who wander into the film in search of more Bean Town shenanigans however are liable to start a riot in the theater.
Gerry was inspired by the works of Hungarian filmmaker Béla Tarr, who amongst other things directed a seven and a half hour long film called Sátántangó which is supposedly filled with beautifully composed landscapes and lonnnnnnnnnng uninterrupted takes. The film also bears more than a passing resembles to the works of playwright Samuel Beckett (at times the film feels like an actor's exercise in motivation deprivation as Casey and Matt try to figure out what the hell they're doing out there in the first place). If just the idea of seeing a film combining the styles of an eastern-European with an aversion to editing and the writer who would have us still waiting on Godot is making your skin crawl than my job as a critic is already half done.
The film isn't what you would call conventionally entertaining, yet it's not quite the chore it by all rights should have been. Don't get me wrong, the film really is two hours of Gerry and Gerry walking amongst the dunes-the film was shot in Argentina and California and is absolutely gorgeous-punctuated by small bursts of dialogue (you all have been forewarned), yet Affleck and Damon make the most of the situation and imbibe their characters with as much of their personality as the film allows. In particular a scene where Affleck finds himself marooned on top of an enormous rock is the most unlikely howler I've seen in a movie in quite some time.
Gerry is the sort of film where what you bring to the film will dictate what you take away from it. Those who find themselves transfixed by passing cloud formations and are hypnotized by the way in which people who walk side by side tend to inadvertently maintain rhythm will likely be more hip to what Van Sant's trying to do here. Those who approach movies with the mindset that things are supposed to happen in return for the eight bucks they just plunked down for a ticket-a perfectly valid mindset-will not. Here's another test: the film begins with the camera following behind a car driving on an interstate highway for and indeterminate distance (rest assured though, it's far). If you can't make it through this scene without checking your watch or slapping yourself to keep awake then your outlook is bleaker than Gerry and Gerry's.
Where do I fall? Surprisingly enough, right square in the middle. Considering the (lack of) subject matter the film was rarely boring. However, while the anarchist in me can appreciate the concept of a shot where the two Gerrys lurch across the desert for eight minutes documenting the entire sunrise as it happens, now that I've seen it I can't say my life is any better because of it.
Gerry is an art film in the sense that it will be off putting to 99% of the people who see it (there were a couple of walkouts at the screening I attended but that felt like an astronomically small number all things considered) but I wouldn't go so far as to call it pretentious (no more pretentious than how first-person based this review is anyway). Far be it from over-reaching, instead the film doesn't do enough with the scenario, stranding its characters amongst daunting vastness with heads every bit as empty. Indeed, while he takes us on a pretty journey it seems like it's Van Sant who's the one lost without a map.
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