Microfilmmaker Magazine - Final Film Critique: The Jigsaw of Life, Pg. 2


	Final Critique: The Jigsaw of Life, Pg. 2

One of the things that bothered me about the story was that it did seem to drag on in places. There are some long exchanges of dialogue that could perhaps be cut down or re-edited. Also, given that the DVD is divided into over 50 chapters, this may be an indication that some scenes need to go.

Also, the story seems to have some holes which need to be filled in. For example, when Duncan has his first flashback of meeting Father Michael, it seems very sudden. There is very little explanation given, except from Duncan's mother who says, "This is your new father," and it isn't until Duncan later mentions it in passing that we find out what happened to his natural father. Also, when Duncan and Lee go on their backpacking trip, I didn't even realize that they were in fact in Ireland until hearing the accents of the other characters.

Since most of the story is also told in flashback from Duncan's point of view, it might be a good idea to use narration to bridge these story gaps. Hollywood is naturally very skeptical of narration, but when done right it will make a good movie great. Think about Fight Club - it never would have been as great as it was without the additional insight into the main character's mind. Narration adds a psychology to the characters that may be difficult to get across simply using visuals and pages of dialogue. Psychology is such a big part of Duncan's character - especially since that was what he was studying at the University. He says that he wants to know why other people do what they do, but it seems to me that he really wants some answers to his past instead, and I think it would add a lot to the story if the audience were able to at least get a peek inside his head.

[ Note to the Director: Since actor Nick Hooton seemed to really get inside the mind of this character, it might be a good idea to bring him into the process of writing narration. I'm betting that he'll be able to come up with some good insights.]

The way in which the story is told - beginning at the end and then referring to flashbacks to tell the rest - is a really good device to keep the audience interested, especially considering that the opening scene is such a dramatic confrontation between Duncan and Keith. By the time the story returned to the confrontation for the last time, I was on the edge of my seat worrying about what was going to happen. And the way that the main conflict was resolved was also very nicely done. By then, Duncan has grown and changed for the better; he has begun to look to the future, and though he still resents Keith, he is more concerned for Clara's well-being than his own. Keith, however, is consumed with anger, jealousy, and bitterness - even though he has "gotten the girl," and in essence won out over Duncan.

The final confrontation between Clara and the two men was very well-done. And though it initially seemed strange for Duncan to return to Ireland to see Pete's daughter rather than reconcile with Clara, now it seems to me like the perfect way to wrap up the movie since, in keeping with the theme, the whole idea of the jigsaw is that the puzzle is not yet complete. Neither he nor Clara can expect to resolve all the issues that they are now facing; they must only look to the future.


Lee helps duncan plan a backpacking trip...	...and helps give him a reason to go on living.

Visual look
The location of the confrontation scene - the ruins of an old church - was one of my favorite in the movie. I've never been to England, and I love to see a filmmaker make use of the natural beauty of the location that they are in. Also, I loved the scene with the Irish dancers, as well as the incorporation of the old buildings in the University; I remember talking with a girl from Scotland once who casually mentioned that her school was about 500 years old - which happens to be nearly twice the age of my entire country!

I loved that the director used these locations, but found myself wishing that there were more of them. It would have been nice to see a wide shot of the town where Duncan grew up or at least his neighborhood. Perhaps a campus panorama (a la Donnie Darko) when he goes to College, and a shot of the beautiful Irish countryside when Duncan and Lee make their trip to Ireland.

Unfortunately, it's really hard to get shots like this on such a small budget, but there are always ways around it. Even Hollywood directors cheat like crazy in these situations - I was recently listening to a commentary on "Mr. and Mrs. Smith," and discovered that the entire film - minus the scene in the desert - was shot in L.A. The production couldn't afford to bring Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie to Columbia, Vancouver, or New York, so they faked a lot of the locations on a soundstage, and used stock footage for aerial shots of Columbia and New York. It may be a good idea to consult some stock footage companies and try to find some shots to interject at various points within the movie - it would definitely add a lot of interest, especially for the American audience.

Overall, the camera work in this film was good. The fact that the director didn't employ any tricky shots probably was for the better, since those kinds of shots can take a lot of time and money to get set up, and if done poorly they really detract from the look of the film. But in this movie, the story and the characters are far more important that any really cool effect shots - in other words, less is more.

However there were a few awkward moments that I noticed. In some of the close-ups, the character was centered in the shot rather than off-center. This looked especially strange during exchanges of dialogue when the shots between the two characters didn't match. Also, in the scene between Duncan and his professor, the professor's close-up was shown in profile, while Duncan's was head-on; this almost had the effect of crossing the 180 degree line. There was also a kind of awkward zoom-in while the professor was talking, and later he was shown in a medium shot of him standing against a bare wall. In that case, it may have been better to get a tighter close-up of him, since there was just too much empty space in that particular shot.

Unfortunately, there's really no way to fix this problem in post, it may be a good idea to either re-edit these scenes or just re-shoot parts of them. As this is a final cut of the film, it's something good to keep in mind for future films.