I'm thinking
deep thoughts, I'm thinking deep thoughts
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Waking Life,
I think not. You'll be lucky to keep your eyes open through this
pretentious twaddle.
Nigel Bell
Picture the
scene, you're in your third week at college, money still in the
bank, you've had a big night on the booze and now you're back at
your new mates bedsit where someone hands round something they shouldn't.
Within a matter
of moments the conversation has reached a new plain. Suddenly everyone's
a philosopher.
The only trouble
is, if you happened to join this gang stone cold sober, you'd find
the rambling conversation totally boring.
That's essentially
what you'll find with Waking Life.
The Plot
Err, what plot. Our hero accepts a lift from a man driving one of
those cars-cum-boats which were trendy in the 60s.
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| Get me
the first boat, err car, out of here |
He's dropped
off and promptly knocked down by another vehicle.
Suddenly he's
dreaming and meeting a whole range of people who spout off about
their interpretations of "what is a dream."
Is our hero
dead, in a coma, dreaming the whole thing?
Frankly you
don't care.
The Verdict
This is dire. Fans of director Linklater might like the fact that
the characters in Waking Life have all appeared in his previous
movies. But you can't say much more than that.
The movie begins
in animated form and you wait the first ten minutes for it to change
to real life. It doesn't.
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| Is it a
dream? I tell you what honey, I couldn't care less, just end
the film and let's go home |
What Linklater
did was film with a video camera and then paint over the footage
to make it look "groundbreaking."
What he's actually
achieved is a movie that jerks about as if you're watching a full-length
version of Bob Godfrey's Rhubarb and Custard (only that was
10 times better).
You almost get
sea sick as inanimate objects in the background rise up and down
while the main character stays still.
A film which'll
find it's natural home on Channel 4, showing at 1.30am with an audience
of wannabe trendy drunks.
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