The Art Of Tracy
Written: Jan 12 '09 (Updated Jan 12 '09)
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Product Rating:
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Pros: Ellen Page delivers another breath taking performance.
Cons: Slips into comedic mode from time to time.
The Bottom Line: A trippy art experiment in the vain of David Lynch.
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| whaler66's Full Review: The Tracey Fragments |
Ellen Page (Tracy Berkowitz)
Maxwell McCabe Lokos (Lance)
Ari Cohen (Misses Berkowitz)
Eric McMurty (Mister Berkowitz)
Slim Twig (Billy Zero)
Zie Souwand (Sunny Berkowitz)
Directed By Bruce Mcdonald. Written By Maureen Medved. Screenplay by Maureen Medved, based upon her novel "The Tracy Fragments."
I would describe Bruce Mcdonald's "The Tracy Fragments" as a mixture of performance art and a stream of consciousness exercise. You could say that this film has echoes of David Lynch's work except that Lynch's work is more interested in artistic substance than overall plot. "The Tracy Frgaments" while quirky and filled with under the surface symbolism, actually has a plot injected into the mix. This is the main reason that I would recommend thisfilm to common film fans as well as the more devoted film fans; the fans that love the challenge of looking beneath the surface to decode the meaning of a film such as this. Although, the style of director Bruce Mcdonald even tested my patience at times. Mcdonald came up with the concept of having the film play out in squares; each square representing a moment in time in the film. While it's neat to see a scene play out before and after it happened, the squared dynamic left me cold. I accepted the challenge of deciphering the more cerebral and symbolic elements of this film but as a tradtionalist.... I would've been happier if director Bruce Mcdonald had shot this film in a more conventional manner. What writer Maureen Medved does that is key is this.... Tracy (Ellen Page) isn't just an entity that's functioning within the confines of an experimental art film. She is a fully dimensional character and screenwriter Maureen Medved (she also wrote the novel) makes us clearly aware of who Tracy is and what story she's trying to tell us. Whenever "The Tracy Fragments" comes dangerously close to becoming an indecipherable art experiment, screenwriter Maureen Medved will give us a moment that will clarify where we're at in terms of the films overall plot. Don't get the wrong idea, even the plot structure of this film is a trippy exercise designed to test your thinking capacity. Yet, the plot points are cohesive enough so that our minds can collect them; sort of like a bread crumb trail, if you will.
Plot: Tracy Berkowitz (Ellen Page) is a social outcast whose life takes a rather strange and unexpected turn when she hypnotizes her little brother Sunny (Zie Souwand) and he disappears. The disappearance of Sunny further strains her relationship with her parents, Mister and Misses Berkowitz (Ari Cohen and Eric McMurty.) Tracy, wracked with guilty, and dying to relieve some of the heat coming down on her courtesy of her parents, sets out to find Sunny. And so begins Tracy's journey into the big wide world; a world filled with freaks and opportunist's. Among them, a freelance drug dealer named Lance (Maxwell McCabe Lokos) who takes Tracy in while she searches for her brother Sunny. As Tracy's searches continues in vain, her fantasy life begins to take take precedence over her actual waking life. Her main fantasy centers around a bad boy named Billy Zero (Slim Twig.) As the days go by without any sign of Sunny, Tracy finds herself struggling to decipher what is real and what is fantasy. I'll stop there, you can decipher the rest of the plot on your own.
I think that what ultimately holds together "The Tracy Fragments" is the outstanding work of Ellen Page. It is Page's depth that makes the Tracy Berkowitz character more than just some angst ridden adolescent. It's amazing to watch Ellen Page during a self confessional in which Tracy talks about who she is and who she'd he'd like to be. Page, like in star making turn in "Juno" showcases a great sense of range in the 'Tracy Fragments." The sequence when Tracy calls her mom and is shunned by her is a prime example of what Ellen Page can do. She not only has the ability to downshift in terms of her character; Page has a great sense of when to turn it up and when to dial it down. It's amazing how Page can slip into the psyche of an adolescent and then deliver a soliloquy in which she makes you forget how young she truly is. My only issue with Page's performance is the fact that she slips in a salty monologue that smacks of "Juno" from time to time. I laughed but on the whole, these little Junoesque monologues only served to undercut the dark sensibilities of this film. It's odd to watch this film operate on such a dark level and then turn slightly satirical when a slice of life monologue is suddenly thrown into the mix. Sometimes it seems like screenwriter Maureen Medved i s struggling to decide what kind of story she wants to tell us. I say, choose the darker path and stay on it. Lose the monologues and let Ellen Page carry this film where it needs to be. It's not like she's incapable of such a task. If screenwriter Maureen Medved had established a comedic tone at the beginning of the film as a compliment to the overall drama of the film, then I wouldn't have objected to the monologues so much.
Final Thoughts: I won't tell an untruth and say that "The Tracy Fragments" is the easiest film to watch. The symbolism isn't that thick but it's thick enough that I had to re-visit certain moments of the film. Aside from the fact that it has a linear plot and a superb performance from Ellen Page, I have no idea why it works outside of that. It just does. Perhaps this film works because director Bruce Mcdonald manages to make "The Tracy Fragments" more than a gimmicky experimental film about an angst filled adolescent. This is a film, while not quite reaching its exact mark, shows a lot of guts by not sacrificing its vision with a sappy crappy ending. Is it hard to see Tracy end up where she does? Yes, but I viewed "The Tracy Fragments" a few weeks ago and that last shot of the Tracy Berkowitz character is still fresh in my mind.
Recommended:
Yes
Movie Mood: Serious Movie
Viewing Method: Other
Film Completeness: Looked complete to me.
Worst Part of this Film: Nothing
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whaler66
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Location: Chicago, Illinois
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