...this is SO DULL. I really tried, but couldn't get past 45 minutes, and that was literally forcing myself to sit through it, for Rachel. Just...no.
shareThank you. I sat through the whole thing and ranted the last half hour about wasting my time.
shareYeah I only made it to the 45 minute mark as well. Just too boring of a story line. And I don't think there's a lot of people switching identities like that ... unless they have Dissociative identity disorder. But she was doing it on purpose. Weird.
shareI just watched the trailer, and it's plainly obvious that this is a very slow paced movie. As such, it's not my cup of tea, but that doesn't mean that others won't appreciate it.
sharemight have been a you have to know someone like her to appreciate it. I have known 2 people like her. it's certainly not as appealing as watching Rachel do it, but I found the movie enthralling, until the end where it delivered no answers, which is kind of what the real life counter parts did, which doesn't necessarily make for satisfying entertainment. Thought provoking though.
shareIt's interesting that I also checked out at the 45 min. mark, and just fast-forwarded the rest of the movie.
shareno it's your mind that's dull
sharePerformances were really good. Rachel did a great nuanced performance of someone who got lost between lives. You could see her pain through her eyes and the internal joy when she found a piece of familiar ground meeting Tom again.
The movie is really simple, so is the script. There are not many moments of excitement, only the beginning (what is happening?) and the ending (what's next?). It's an indie film after all. Plus it was a production decision to make it small and contained.
I really like slow dramas and because I really enjoy Rachel maybe I find it way more appealing than most people and it was nice to see her reunited with Kathy Bates again after Swept From The Sea (1997).
I'm with Robo on this. The movie, grew legs as they say, at the party, she conned herself to get invited to. She had a master plan the whole time. Movies like this allow audience participation. They don't provide all the answers, like life itself. And it isn't until after, for some of us, we're no longer in that 'place' that we can see it wasn't for us after all. But yet, everything happens for a reason. And for me, I had an experience like this, only on-line, where someone (famous, an actor so it was easy) wanted so badly to be with me he created a persona for that, and, believe it or not, kept it up for years. All the right answers, that were nothing, but were too, like him in his ever-changing "extraordinary" life.
GFW
That's a whole new area of make believe. Say anything for conquest. That's more purposeful and conscious than what I interpreted Alice's position to be. There didn't seem to be a goal to her identity change except to perpetuate the cycle. She's not attempting the longstanding noble tradition of saying anything to get into someone's pants.
shareAlice/Jennifer had some emotional injury we're not privy to. Things like this don't just happen, and they don't just end either.
Like I said, addicts, of whatever, tend to hit a bottom. It is then they choose to get into either a program or therapy or both to manage their emotional core issue managing it onward from that. But most of us love our addictions. That's why we're addicted. And most of us choose to work where we can feed it too. There are exceptions, but like sex addicts who get into Hollywood, become famous, and have a 'candy store' at their beckon call. And why Hollywood has fixers too for when they get into trouble. These people, regardless of what they're addicted to, must hit bottom where they are required to pull themselves up or they decide they're not worth it and remain until whatever they're addicted to kills them. Wasn't it tough for you and your girlfriend? To walk away? Feel helpless? But you have to take care of yourself as pathological problems aren't fixed with care, love, support. They can, however, be managed, and accepting you have a problem is the first step.
GFW
Unfortunately in my experience there were no answers, and as far as I know the people are still doing what they do, inventing new lives and fabricating pasts. so that's 15 years of history of this condition that I know about with one person. I don't know what the root cause is, I'm inclined to believe it was something physical, like something on the autism spectrum, or to do with bi polar disorder, which can have impulsive lying as a symptom of the condition ie it wasn't triggered by an event, it is a function of their mental make up.
That's why the rock bottom doesn't seem to play a part in their lives, since they're shielded from the actuality of their condition by the condition itself. They're involuntarily compelled to do it and don't know that it's a problem, although in Alice's case you could see it in her eyes that she was tired from it, or the director chose to show that detail. I saw no indication of acknowledgement in my cases.
The journey was tough, but in my case it was 6 months of not knowing followed by 6 months of suspecting till after a year of being sure, then 6 more months of trying to prove it, then a couple of years believing I could fix it. I didn't walk away, they did, of course. New city, new identity or 3 and the cycle continues. I have no better understanding of the condition than we get from the film. It is just what it is. I did read up on it at the time, and did find the bipolar impulsive lying thing.
We were in contact with mental health professionals but didn't get any understanding or answers from them.
The walk away bit was hard, but ultimately the same as for Tom, dodge the bullet. appreciate it for what it was, a learning experience, and recognise and avoid the same situations next time.
The interesting part for me was seeing these multiple identities exist with hugely fabricated backgrounds and seeing new people accept the earnestly. I was just like in the movie except without the people ganging up on her. Nobody found out cos she wasn't round long enough to let the gang up happen. as soon as a wiff of the deceit came up she'd tackle it, aggressively, and if it didn't work then she'd be out of there never to be seen again. This movie got a lot of that detail spot on, so I'm wondering if it was written by someone who had the same experience of a real condition.