By Roger Costa
MOUTHPIECE
The camera follows Cassandra, a young female writer seeking emotional stability, as she gets back home after a party. Her strong, complex, ambiguous personality is expressed through double views, double bodies. The role is performed by two actresses, interacting with each other and reacting differently to the unexpected events announced as she wakes up, dizzy and avoiding the consequences of heavy drinking. Books are all over the house, stacks and piles, around the bed, in the kitchen, on the floor, in the staircase; they represent Cassandra’s need of imagination and knowledge, as she’s the heiress of a family of writers, influenced by her talented mother; they also remind her of work to be done, lines to be written, stories to be told; they represent her need of interacting with the world her tumultuous feminist crisis, her need to create, to improve herself as an artist, as a millennial writer. Those books are simple metaphors for her feelings, the family affairs, the unsolved matters that can never be fixed, her hopelessness and anxiety, her vulnerable self analysis. Struck by tragedy, Cassandra learns her mother suddenly died, leaving her, the entire family and their writers’ community to deal with despair.
As she prepares to face the others, and seeks inspiration to write an eulogy, she reflects on her ego and personal memories from childhood, decisive moments shared with her mother, their broken relationship and mutual influences. While past and present are mixed in the same room, Cassandra will try to make amends with her traumas and herself. Accomplished filmmaker Patricia Rozema returns with this seductive puzzle on womanhood; She develops an impressive aesthetic, blending surrealism, dark comedy and family tragedy, as she investigates the conflicts of a modern woman. She brilliantly composes highly dramatic scenes with the same enthusiasm and competence as the comic investments, such as the sex scene (one of the two Cassandras cannot stop talking and interrupting), and the magical musical number on the aisles of a supermarket. Along with the stupendous cinematography, highlighting long shadows within the atmospheric, dreamlike and imaginative aspects, Rozema conceives a strong portrait of mother/daughter relationships, meditating on co-dependence, the process of creativity, the experience of gaining maturity and overcoming a tragedy, and the empowerment of determined women. The climax, marvelously edited with the funeral and the last Christmas party, reveals the core of Cassandra’s dilemma, and proves the talent of a great filmmaker deeply engaged in the feminine universe.
(A Crucial Things and First Generation Films Release. Opens 5/31 at the Village East, NY and 6/7 at the Monica Film Center, LA)
Comments