The Clone Returns Home
Japan (2008)
Director: Kanji Nakajima
Starring: Mitsuhiro Oikawa, Eri Ishida, Hiromi Nagasaku
Capsule review by: Charlie Prince

The Clone Returns Home is not for everyone. Although it was billed by critics as one of the top “must see” works at Sundance this year, it is at heart a capital-A art film that will appeal to a very limited audience. Put more plainly, this film is extraordinarily SLOW. For example, the film includes what I think of as the ultimate “film festival scene” — a scene that is tolerated and even celebrated at film festivals, but would be booed off the screen in any kind of normal theater environment. The classic “film festival scene” is a staple of The Clone Returns Home and goes something like this: we see a giant field, or beach or other large open expanse. From the far side of the screen, we notice someone walk into frame, though we’re so far away we may not even realize at first that it is a person. Then, lucky us, we get to watch in real time as this person slowly walks across the field or beach or whatever over several eon-bearing minutes. During such scenes, there is often no dialogue, no plot developing, and nothing to pay attention to — think of it charitably as a chance to reflect on what happened in the previous scene (since there is nothing else to do), or less charitably as an informal bathroom break. That is the film festival scene, and it occurs several times in The Clone Returns Home. Not everyone hates this, I’m assured, and extremely patient audiences may enjoy it, but my guess is many people will find it tedious.

Which is a shame, because there are some interesting philosophical concepts in the film (lurking in between takes of people slowly crossing fields), and I suspect I would have enjoyed a more tightly edited film. Billed as the thinking person’s sci-fi film, it tells the story of Kohei, a young astronaut who agrees to take out an “insurance policy” so that in the event he accidentally dies, a clone will be made of him, so that he can continue to live and to provide for his loved ones by way of the clone. But in addition to the ethical debates raised by the concept of cloning generally, it turns out there are all sorts of technical problems to producing a clone. As an initial problem, the first Kohei clone to be produced is too perfect — he remembers everything from earlier in his life, including many things that are better left forgotten (especially an incident involving his brother which has always haunted him). (Small spoiler ahead this paragraph only) So, the company decides to go ahead and produce another clone, thinking the first, failed clone had died. Soon, however, clones are bumping into each other, it turns out there is a strange “resonance” that affects clones and allows them to hear things other people can‘t — all of which ends up being very confusing for those in the audience who didn‘t fall asleep.

In full disclosure, I did start to nod off on this one, but I tend to think of that as a film festival’s version of natural selection — for those of us running around seeing films from 7am until 2am, we’re barely able to stay awake. The great movies captivate us and wake us up no matter how tired we are, but if a movie’s overly slow, dull or otherwise a stinker, no matter how hard we might try, we start to nod off. I hate it when that happens, but it is an efficient alert system for dull movies.

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The Greatest
USA (2008)
Director: Shana Feste
Starring: Pierce Brosnan, Susan Sarandon, Carey Mulligan, Johnny Simmons
Capsule review by: Charlie Prince

This is an incredible window into the experience of extreme suffering along the lines of Leaving Las Vegas. That said, its success in conveying this misery is also a curse, because it makes it a beatdown to watch, and so I suspect a lot of people will avoid the film for that reason. When Susan Sarandon, who starred in the film, was asked in the Q&A what she thought of the film having now seen it, she said something fairly shocking. This is not an exact quote, but it was something along the lines of it was a pleasure to work with everyone in the film, but now actually watching it was “horrible”. Ouch! That doesn’t take away from the effectiveness of the film — it is damned powerful, and by the end everyone in the theater was balling their eyes out. But don’t say I didn’t warn you — the film perfectly captures and brings the audience along on the ultimate misery extravaganza, and how often are we in the mood to watch that?

The cause of all the misery is the aftermath of the death of a teenage son. Pierce Brosnan stars in the film alongside Susan Sarandon, and when their son dies, they of course go through hell. Each goes overboard in their own way. Sarandon’s character obsesses over every tiny detail of the accident and what happened in a morbid, disturbing way, while Pierce Brosnan goes the other direction, casually going to the movies and otherwise attempting to appear “strong” for the family, while it is clear he has not confronted what has happened internally. The couple’s other son takes a third tack by feeling “nothing”. This part of the plot is fairly predictable, but the performances are heart-wrenching and captivating.

Another angle to the film is the dead son’s ex-girlfriend, who needs answers of her own. How Brosnan and Sarandon react to her presence and persistence drives the bulk of the film, and represents in a lot of ways their ability to accept and come to terms with what happened (the girlfriend was in the car accident that killed their son, but she survived with only minor injuries). On an amazing sidenote, the actress who plays the girlfriend, Carey Mulligan, also stars in a second film playing this year’s Sundance The Education. Mulligan has the most buzz of any actor/actress that I’ve heard around the festival this year, and my guess is we’ll be hearing a lot more from her in the future.

The director, Shana Feste, explained after the film that the story was driven in large part from her own experiences. She said that her father had lost a child (I believe she said it was before she was born), and so she was intimately familiar with the day-in day-out life of a grieving parent, which was the basis for the film.

So, once again we have a high quality film that many people won’t be anxious to see, so what does that add up to? Whether you should see this film ultimately depends on your appetite for experiencing misery in a film. The film is very powerful, and will almost certainly affect anyone who watches it, but as for its commercial appeal, suffice it to say it doesn’t make for a great date movie. Like many great films, personally I’m glad I saw it, but I’ll make a point not to watch it again.