This film is one of those hidden gems - I first saw it totally by chance on TV about ten years or so ago - and, having seen Bill and Ted before I saw this, I was thinking it would be awful (oh yeah, Keanu doing another guitar-wannabe, how many times will he say "dude" or awesome!" in a sentence?), but it was a truly good film. It took all of the teenage angst and sense of needing to rail against the world when something like that happens and treated it without the saccharine twist of things like The Breakfast Club.
Permanent Record is never going to be your first choice viewing on a friday night - it's way too dark and lacks the usual "make it all better in the last act" Hollywood touch to be a mainstream hit, but as a character piece (not to mention a way to show that Keanu *can* act when heputs his mind to it), it is up there with the best of them. When I was at school, in my final year, I had three kids in my year die - one had his car run off the road and off of a bridge by a drunk driver, another died of cancer and the third had a heridtary heart condition and died of a coronary as he walked out of the school gate. Whilst none of them committed suicide, the fact is that at 18 you usually feel like you'll live forever and that nothing can stop you. Events like that change that view pretty quickly and the sense of your own mortality, combined with grief, shock and a hormone-driven desire to live life to the full can lead you to do stupid things, such as Keanu's character did. I'd say that this film is blessed with a good script, some sympathetic direction and a cast that simply got it right. I don't think Keanu has acted better - sure, he's made some good films, but this was the right role at the right time and he nailed it. I have recommended this film to everyone I know and pray it gets shown once in a while, as I'd like to share it with them...
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