Customer Reviews

The Myth of Fingerprints

5 star:		(11)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(7)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

I've watched this movie several times - to see if I missed anything before, just to see it again, because it's mesmerising (for me, anyway), and because I'm secretly hoping that it wasn't really THAT sick ......... the acting, photography, direction were all superb - the message came across so very true to life in every way ........... and because of all that, I often watch it when it's re-run on the tube; Noah Wyle does an excellent job of portaying the son who suffered so pointedly, the betrayal that goes on in this family - and as in all (or most anyway) families - this one is affected via the trickle down of the tone set by the parents - the father - Roy Scheider - isn't just distant; he's downright mean and destructive - blurred from being discerned clearly, because of his eccentricities - although I did feel that he contrived all of those too. And Blythe Danner did an excellent job of portraying the mother who goes on for decades overlooking her husband's cruel streaks, his creepy deceits, his silence, anger, and his tone-setting refusal to tolerate open communication; in spite of all this unpleasantness in the household, and the effect this all has/had on the now grown children - I enjoy this movie because it all "hangs together" so real and true. It's hard to believe that in this day and age, that there surely are families like this - who simply never communicate openly atall - ever!

A beautifully photographed film with an incredible cast of wonderful actors ... and a very heavy-handed script about a supremely disfunctional family. The plot offers no real exposition or resolution, treating the audience as unwelcome guests who have gate-crashed a private family gathering; we interrupt a drama that has been unfolding for many years, witness the latest exchanges of unpleasantness and angst, and then are asked to leave prematurely. Too many characters are left unfully explored or developed. For example, does the mother not wonder why her oldest son knocks his father down?! What causes the youngest son to suddenly conquer his doubts concerning emotional commitment? Is there a reason for the father's nocturnal singing activities?

The DVD offers an excellent anamorphic picture and remarkable sound. Worth a look just for the cast, but the main theme of a family in relationship crisis was more successfully explored in the dramatic "Ordinary People" and the comedic "Home for the Holidays" (which featured "Myth" bookshop owner Cynthia Stevenson in the role of Holly Hunter's younger sister).

you'll recognize yourself and people you know, and it will strike an emotional chord wth you.
thought provoking, intense, distant and cold.
all performances are a sensation, julianne moore a standout as usual. a thanksgiving gathering gone wrong. buried and bitter feelings abound and resurface again.
look elsewhere if your expecting a happy ending, this isn't that kind of movie. the father/son relationship is very sad. anger underneath the surface between them.
there is a cellar scene where the father goes down and sees a family film from long ago. a birthday party for his son. this scene is very moving, showing the father how horrible he acted toward him. the look on roy scheider's face while watching the reel is heartbraking....he has no feelings at all of what he did, and why. subtle to its center, it is a good film.

David Bridie and Rufus Wainright on one CD? To fans of them it is a dream. This is where i first found them both (The music really grabbed me when i watched the flick). David Bride and John Phillips are from the Aussie band "Not Drowning, Waving" and this soundtrack sounds a bit like the NDW soundtrack to "Hammers". The addition of 2 great Rufus' traditional covers and Bing Crosby keep you in visual movie mode. This very mellow and introspective music, so if that's what you like, I recommend it highly! jeff@deco.net

THE MYTH OF FINGERPRINTS follows the grand tradition of ORDINARY PEOPLE and, more recently, THE ICE STORM, in dissecting family relations, jealousies, hatreds, and closely-held secrets. While many characters and situations work, the focus ends up unclear; we are never quite sure what we're supposed to feel, as the characters themselves come across as mostly weak and not all that likeable. The actors fight gamely. Though Roy Scheider is as cold and remote as the winter setting, Blythe Danner and Noah Wyle are uniformly excellent. Overall worth watching but I look forward to director Bart Freundlich's next effort even more. END

This movie blew me away. As someone who loves viewing relationships between family members, this movie was perfect for me. I loved seeing how each member of the family interacted with one another, how each were so different, how each were involved with some inner torment. Brilliant performances by Noah Wyle, Michael Vartan and Julianne Moore.

This is by far one of, if not, the best film I have seen in quite some time. Noah Wyle is astounding, and I can't stress Arija Bareikis' acting as solid and beautiful. She is a pleasure to watch.

Some pretty pictures, some good acting on the parts of some of the actors as they portray a bunch of dysfunctional people home for Thanksgiving.

However, a plot seems to be missing. We meet the parents and grown kids, as well as dragged-along boyfriend/girlfriend of two of the grown kids as they gather at the parents' home for the holiday. All of them seem to have deep seated weirdnesses and problems, ranging from the oldest daughter, Mia (Julianne Moore) who seems to be stricken with a near-terminal case of the redass to the youngest daughter who seems to think it is hysterically funny to leap out from behind doors at people, screaming at the top of her lungs. The father, played by Roy Scheider, is distant and boorish and seems to be obsessed with the time and adhering to a schedule. The mother (Blythe Danner) acts as if nothing is going on at all, even though her children and their assorted guests are acting like twerps and her husband acts like he needs a lobotomy.

Fine, a good portrait of dysfunctional family dynamics - but it doesn't go anywhere from there. We never find out just why the kids are estranged from their father. The most shattering thing we see that he's done is that he gets bombed at some previous gathering and makes a pretty strong pass at his son, Warren's (Noah Wylie) then-girlfriend, kissing her in the hallway of the family home. In another scene, we see the father watching an old home movie of a birthday party for Warren, where he breaks a couple of eggs over the kid's head. Some confusing references are made to some kind of "game" the father has played through the years, which seems to consist of asking people who don't have watches what time it is.

Okay, so the father doesn't come off as Dad Of The Year by any means - but what we hear and see of him simply doesn't explain the obvious deep-seated problems of his adult children, ranging from the ongoing rage and viciousness of his oldest daughter, Mia, to his son, Warren's, obvious fear and distaste for him. Physical or sexual abuse isn't even hinted at. At most it seems as if the father character is obsessed by schedules and time and is rigid and emotionally distant from everyone.

So it is hard to accept the characters of the adult children or why they act like such putzes. From what we're told by the sketchy plot, they don't really seem to have much reason to indulge in continual rages or depression. Two of them have relationships with other people that seem to involve a lot of sex, but not much else. Mia's relationship with her boyfriend, Elliot, is simply painful, as she continually cuts him down, verbally abuses him and then tries to use him as a sex object - but then, for some reason unknown to us, Mia verbally abuses everyone without mercy. She's always angry and cruel - but we don't know why.

Warren, on the other hand, seems to excel at whiny depression. We see him in what appears to be a therapy session, mentioning a hometown girl, Daphne, who apparently dumped him in the past. This has been the catalyst for him being estranged from his family for three years. When we finally see what happened - his drunken father tried groping and kissing the girlfriend in a hallway, and apparently Warren saw the incident - we're left wondering "is that it?" All that trauma because someone got drunk and acted like a jerk? She dumped Warren, who did nothing wrong, because of something his father, an acknowledged jerk, did? Warren just comes off as oversensitive and self-absorbed, greatly enjoying his angst, and his girlfriend comes off as a little jerk who treated him badly becaue of something he didn't do (and who also, for some reason, makes him sit on the ice of a frozen lake for a long talk). Considering the buildup to the "shattering" moment, I had at least expected that his father had raped his girlfriend, or that Warren had discovered that she'd been having an affair with this father. Only something of that intensity could have explained Warren's ongoing grief.

Another brother, Jake, is involved with a pea-brained girlfriend that he can't seem to say "I love you" to. After seeing her behavior through the movie, we can understand why. She's quite rude, vacuous, insensitive to the discomfort and feelings of others, and manipulative. In other words, Jake is involved with a carbon copy of his father. Okay, fine - is that it? This is worth a two hour movie?

Youngest daughter, Lee, is just a little jerk. She's busy being the cute and funny mascot, always acting like a ten year old, making a rather pitiful pitch for the attentions of Mia's boyfriend. Insults and cruelties seem to just roll off her hide, particularly when they're aimed at her by Mia. At one point she's having a conversation with her mother, who is telling her that she still loves the kids' father in spite of everything - but we never hear what "everything" consists of.

A slice of life movie is fine, and this film comes off as a peek into a holiday weekend with a dysfunctional family, but empathy for any of the characters is almost impossible because we never see just what it is that has led to such a range of unhealthy behaviors in this family. More exposition would have helped - otherwise, everyone comes off as whiny, self-pitying, obnoxious and tiresome.

Some people who gave this film positive reviews mention that this is a true slice of life - that the ends aren't neatly tied up, that much remains unsaid and unrevealed, just as is the case in dysfunctional families. There is no Hollywood ending. That's fine - but for a film to really work, a little more than several days' worth of Big Brother is needed. If we're to see these people as anything other than a bunch of immature cretins, we need to know why they ended up that way, even if it's not entirely revealed.

All the angst doesn't add up to the supposed cause of the angst - and I was glad the film was finally over as a result.

Before purchase, rent it and be sure you want to own it before buying.

Although this film contains some decent performances, it just drifts along aimlessly for an hour and an half, without ever giving a full explanation as to why any of the characters behave as they do. You want dysfunctionalism? This film has it! As another reviewer stated, it's pretty much a pointless affair, with the only redeeming quality being some fine acting. The plot, (what there is of it), has to do with family turmoil coming to a head over the course of a Thanksgiving holiday, but as the film creaks along to it's rather abupt end, none of the story lines are resolved, and you're left asking what happened to the rest of the movie.

I was very impressed by a the acting in this film, particularly Schieder and Wyle, but frankly it lacked a real plot (other than portraying one of the most dysfunctional families around). It was overly depressing and pointless.