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"9 Songs" an enigma |
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Written by RYAN COX
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Friday, 02 September 2005 |
It’s very difficult for me to say too much about “9 Songs,” because there’s not much to “9 Songs.” At a meager 71 minutes, nearly half of which are composed of very long, wide shots at rock shows at various London venues, almost nothing happens. Yet “9 Songs” is a film that broke my heart like few films ever have, while at the same time feeding me almost nothing. It’s like starving and being given a piece of bread each day, and while you enjoy that bread, all it really does is make you think about steak and potatoes, and how much you wish you had that instead. Which I think is the point.
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"9 Songs" |
 Entertainment
 Art
Directed and written by Michael Winterbottom
Starring Kieran O'Brien, Margo Stilley
Not rated
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“9 Songs” is not a film about plot, or even about characters. What I think writer/director Michael Winterbottom wants to do more than anything is create introspection, much like a painting, with no context or background, into your own circumstances, and life, and loves, and experiences. He wants you to think about how those things have shaped you, and what those people have meant to you.
It involves two lonely souls, Matt and Lisa, about whom we learn virtually nothing. Lisa is 21, an American visiting London for obscure reasons, and Matt, whose age we never learn, but is obviously much older, wiser, and more damaged. Their relationship revolves around a series of rock shows and sex, with occasional playful flirting and antagonistic bickering that never devolves into full-fledged fights. Neither of them seem to have the energy for fighting, and besides that, it hardly seems worth it. Not much else happens, really, besides these furtive glimpses into two people’s mutual life. We’re not even given a time-line; it could be about a month, it could be a year. It’s irrelevant.
Much has been made of the explicit sex in “9 Songs,” and it is very explicit, but it seems a shame to me that the sex is what everybody seems to focus on, when “9 Songs” is a very bold film in other ways. It’s too laden with sadness and the inevitability of the coming “end.” It’s bold in its stark treatment of relationships, and its detached, almost scientific, non-analysis. It doesn’t leave you with closure, or even really an ending. Just a slow disintegration into silence and solitude.
But eventually, it does end. Lisa decides to return to America, seemingly on the turn of a dime, leaving Matt high and dry, his feelings having coalesced into something resembling affection, or possibly even love, but he seems at a loss as to explain how or why. It’s as if the director wanted to feed you only enough about these two people for you to hang your own baggage and experience on them and fill in all the blanks for yourself. I feel that only the most inexperienced audience member could walk away from this film with nothing, but then again, perhaps I’m being too harsh. It could be that my own personal heartbreak is too fresh and I’m just reading into it what I want to, when maybe the point, after all, is just to get you off, but provide a little context. It’s very difficult to say, and again, I also think that is the point.
What brings people together in real life is often very difficult to determine. Sometimes it’s shared interests, sometimes it’s circumstance, sometimes it’s as simple as the other person just being there when you need someone to be there. But more often, what’s difficult to determine is what pulls people apart. These are themes that “9 Songs” explores, and not particularly well. But if it can provoke in you an examination of everyone you’ve ever loved, and what did or didn’t go wrong or right, I think it has succeeded. “9 Songs” is an enigma, but so are most relationships, and that doesn’t mean they weren’t worth having, even if you’re left confused, broken and sad.Powered by AkoComment 2.0! |
Other Recent Articles by RYAN COX:Preparing for your class reunion"Mysterious Skin" aims to move you"High Tension" lives up to its name"Sin City" gives guilty warm feeling"Fever Pitch" a catch for Farrellys
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