Climbing Higher Pictures

The following review was written in conjunction with the 2010 Tribeca Film Festival and reflects the cut of the film which screened for Press.

William Vincent Review

By Ryan Hamelin

Movie Grade: D+

I honestly didn’t know if I’d survive. It was hit or miss there for a while. Some people don’t realize how many things have to go right to create a satisfying film. The sheer number of people and departments that have to be working like a well oiled machine to deliver a great final product. Here is an example of a well-scripted, well-acted medium length feature or long form short that was completely dismantled by a combination of editing and scoring.

Firstly, the film is far too long. At barely over an hour and a half, it feels like 3 hours, and is a story which could have been told perfectly in under half an hour. I’m sure the script couldn’t have been a full feature length, unless they took out important sequences to make room for extended brooding shots and copious amounts of B-roll coverage of nothing. The star, James Franco, has a much better eye for scripts than this project demonstrates, and again, I feel as though the problems stem from decisions which were made after shooting was wrapped, not in the pre-production. Franco does great with what he’s given, even managing to display his acting range when not looking pensive or downtrodden. The other actors put in solid to great performances as well, including Josh Lucas’s notable turn as the seedy business man/crime lord who ropes in Franco’s struggling drifter.

Secondly, any tension or emotional we could have had for the characters, for the plot, and for the film are swept away in the manner in which the film is constructed. For starters, we never really have our bearings on what we’re watching. The opening is the ending, except then we find out it’s not, except that we never really see the beginning, and since we start in the middle never feel like the ending is paying anything off. Then there’s the 20 minute voice-over narration by Mr. Franco, who, for those who have listened to his line delivery in Spiderman 3 with their eyes closed, know isn’t the type of voice that is strong enough to resonate as simply a vocal performance. When in a conversation between two people, the editor leaves the camera on only one performer for agonizingly long periods of time, preventing you from seeing the person who is talking and cheating the viewer out of the kind of coverage which allows us to empathize with the characters. William Vincent, it turns out, edits nature videos to pay his rent, and I can’t even count the number of times we cut to him, in a dark room, fiddling on his laptop in Final Cut, listening to a terrible BBC sounding voice-over about a weird animal while we hold on footage of the animal breathing, or his brooding face, or his fingers typing on the keyboard. It’s horribly monotonous.

Thirdly, and finally, the score is a combination of the most grating and annoying sounds you’ve ever heard. Principally a harmonica and a high pitched bass guitar, it eats away at the only forces that remained you seated and watching the disaster unfold. The bass reminds me of the horrible 80’s synth that accompanies such classics as Blade Runner, a trend which was thought to be progressive, but which ended up painfully and hopelessly dated. The tacky soundtrack makes it literally impossible to connect in sequences where you can feel the emotion floating just below the surface. If we can’t get past the construction of the film, no matter how abstract the movie seems to be, then it fails even at an experimental level. Though I could go on for many more paragraphs, I believe you have the point, and understand that this could have been a really solid short, despite digressing into a painful to watch feature.