Wrong Side Up
I do not like to watch lovable fools bumbling through life for fun; it is too much like watching torture. So, half way through Petr Zelenka’s “Wrong Side Up (Príbehy obycejného sílenství)” I was ready to do violence to Hanek, just put him out of his misery. But a strange thing happened: I started to come around and silently cheered for the fool. Part of it had to do with him finally standing up, even though just for a moment, to his mother. And part of it has to do with the love Jana as for Hanek. Through her struggle to love (or not to love) him we saw what is unique about Hanek is not the foolishness but his kind and gentle heart. This understanding is easy to say but hard to convey. Zelenka succeed by not playing things for laugh and let the humour be human and meaningful; and that is no small feat.
posted by Unknown at 12:35 a.m.
4 Comments:
I enjoyed this, thought it was kind of sweet, especially the father's part of the story. Strange how the theme of dialing a random phone number was present in both this one and Portrait of a Lady Far Away.
What did you think of the ending? Not sure how you feel about spoilers in the comments of your blog, so I won't elaborate except to say that I don't think there was any ambiguity intended about what happens to Petr, and I don't think it really fit with the tone of the rest of the film.
It is rather difficult to end a film like this. It would be just too much to have a happy everafter kind of ending. This ending however also leave a bad taste in my mouth, as if the optimism of the film somehow crashed abruptly without a good reason. But if you ask me how I would like it to end, I am not sure.
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Since I don't think of these as reviews, I don't worry about spoilers either.
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