Girl from Monday, The |
  • USA • 2005 • 84m •    • Directed by: Hal Hartley. • Starring: Bill Sage, Sabrina Lloyd, Tatiana Abracos, Leo Fitzpatrick, D.J. Mendel, James Urbaniak, Juliana Francis, Gary Wilmes, David Neumann, Ryan Bronz, Edie Falco, Paul Urbanski, Michael Cassidy. • Music by: Hal Hartley.   In the not-distant-future, the market has taken over everything, thanks to the marketers. The consumer is king, and those who see value outside of the marketplace are "enemies of the consumer", terrorists, and "partisan" enemies that the state must dispose of. Protagonist Jack seems to be at one with the media corporations (after all, his marketing ideas led to the institutionalization of the exchange of sex for enhanced buying power), but is he somehow involved with the feeble and pathetic resistance movement? Does he love Cecile, his colleague, or is she a pawn in his game? And what of the mysterious girl from Monday? Are immigrants from the star system "Monday" really assisting the partisans?
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Review:
After seeing "Simple Men," I eagerly waited the release on video of each new Hartley film, and relentlessly hunted down his early work and short films as well. Mostly, I found his movies to be totally and refreshingly offbeat, unpredictable, and irreverent--yet also very watchable--with great plots, likable characters, and a sense of humor that was wry and goofy by turns.
His photographic style was crisp and painterly; and though it may it may have looked conventional, its flat lighting and muted colors, coupled with deadpan dialogue and the movement and ear of a good play, it was obvious to anyone that this was genuine "auteur" direction.
But Hartley's more recent work-'"The Book of Life," "No Such Thing," and now "The Girl from Monday," has failed to stir in me even the slightest interest. There are vestiges in these films of vintage Hartley; but the thrill is definitely gone.
As he did in "The Book of Life," Hartley once again decides to offset the horizon in almost every scene-'a few degrees to the left, a few degrees to the right-'and he indulges in other eccentricities as well, like cutting out frames to make the motion jagged, or moving the camera in and out of focus-'in short adding disruption after disruption--all to no purpose that I can discover. Personally, I find nothing interesting and nothing functional in this new, crabbed style of his.
The plot of "Girl" is jejune in the extreme-'yet another distopic look at a future of totalitarian rule, with a bit of alien intervention to muddy the mix still further. (Someone on this list compared the sci-fi facet to "The Man Who Fell To Earth." Indeed, the theft is so blatant, Roeg should have been mentioned in the credits.) This movie has little to recommend it-'even for a Hartley enthusiast like I (was).
Review by robertllr from the Internet Movie Database.
Movie Database