Customer Reviews

The Fever

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Although categorized as Drama, this film is best thought of as a cinematic essay - one woman's affecting reflection on the mysteries of life, morality, politics, right and wrong in a complex world, the sort of stuff you may get from a good Charlie Rose interview but at a surprising depth. For a film consisting largely of Ms. Redgrave's ruminations in the form of a voice-over monologue, it was unexpectedly engaging. It asks all the right questions, even if it doesn't always have the satisfying answers.

There is something of a back story, but the story is basically besides the point. Although a lot of the filming was apparently done in Croatia and the location looks vaguely Eastern European, the fictional country that much of the story takes place in is never named. On the one occasion that someone pointed to a map of the country on a wall, oddly enough it was a map of China - you can clearly see Taiwan and Hainan off the coast.

Ms. Redgrave's character is in practically every frame, and every other character is basically a cameo. Michael Moore, who gets second billing, did a competent if not particularly demanding job playing a war correspondent in a single scene lasting about 3 minutes. The only actor that comes close to being a bona fide co-star is on screen for 6-7 minustes but she is not even mentioned on the jacket. That would be Angelina Jolie, who brings remarkable emotional depth to an otherwise small role.

Ok. This is one of those movies--few, sadly--that easily leads viewers to: 1, turn it off, commenting to dismayed, similarily bothered fellow on-lookers, "that's depressing!" as they seal the Netflicks envelope, or 2) "wow...there is something profound in the message here, and even if I am not ready to really sit with it, this is important stuff."

What runs over the character deftly played by Redgrave, are the subtle and pervasive ways selfishness, self-absorbtion, and cognitive short cuts are used by humans--typically of the well-healed classes, who possess more influence for change--as they bypass crimes carried out across the world. Ok. We've heard this before e.g., Jesus, Socrates, Ghandi, Biko, MLK, RFK, Marx and yes, even Michael Moore in his way. But Redgrave's confronting of her comission in the way things operate arrests. I suspect that few with a conscience, who look authentically at themselves, the world around, will remain unaffected. Spiritual, Economic, Political, Moral. This is revolutionary.

Well done.

I caught this on HBO and Vanessa Redgrave was fabulous. Surprisingly good performances from Angelica Jolie and Michael Moore (yes, THAT Michael Moore), too! I'm looking forward to the DVD release.

As already noticed, Vanessa Redgrave does a wonderful job playing... herself. I'm not so sure Angelina Jolie is quite there yet; had I decided to go through the labor of filming in such an evocative place, I'd have settled for an authentic actress of that place. Angelina starts credible, but soon loses it and reverts to her being an American in language and all that. Michael Moore is again OK, but his name in real life looms larger than his character's. All in all, 4 out of 5 stars for acting.

The story line is an entirely different animal. It starts by expanding the context of comfort for your typical westerner by considering the banality of evil in a nearby place, not known or seen despite its relative proximity. They could have chosen those kids in, say, Africa who disassemble electronic debris from the west, or some plantation workers, but such images have already been re-presented time and again and they must be soliciting by now mild indignation at best. No, the film makers don't choose such images to show the body of the iceberg we know only by its tip and call western affluence. They go into a place where people are Christian, and white, and (civil-)war-torn. Aha, so misfortune in this life is not ethnic as much as is geo-graphic. Since this 1/2 of the story is about the nearby geographies of misfortune in places we might mistake for our own, how do the filmmakers represent them and their peoples' struggles? Oops, from the perspective of the western newspaper reader. Yup, there's nothing to show they understand the drama of these places other than the cycle whereby a bunch of deceitful cynics replace a bunch of careless cynics.

What does the character of Redgrave do? After becoming aware and the ensuing moral crisis, she settles in some sort of moral relativism... I guess, this is as real as it gets, for those few and well meant westerners who venture that far have to return. Much fewer of these try to actually go beyond, but they may well be the saints of our days.