Indie Hartley

groggo

I admire the delicious political cynicism of this film, but it's too bad a lot of 'art-house' critics inject profundity into films where no such profundity exists. It always reminds me of James Joyce's remark after reading a particularly pontificating, over-analyzed-and-intellectualized critique of Ulysses: 'Sounds good to me; wish I'd thought of that'. (I'm paraphrasing).

Whoever said this is a 'Hartley film' is probably closest to the truth. You either 'get' the guy or you don't. Personally, I'm in the latter camp. I keep watching Hartley's films and he doesn't make me swoon (regrettably, because I hate Hollywood crap and want indie makers to succeed).

In 'The Girl From Monday,' I was confused from the get-go. The voice-over and 'establishment' shots just didn't place me at all. The acting was sub-par. If you're going to throw satiric barbs at a juicy target like capitalism, you'd better have actors with more conviction and irony in their voices. I wanted this film to register with me, but it didn't.

score 4/10

groggo 18 May 2007

Reprint: https://www.imdb.com/review/rw1657930/