At 70 minutes long, "Following" is Christopher Nolan's shortest feature though it certainly isn't his best. But you've got to hand it to him just for coming up with the fantastic story idea. "Following" juggles quite a lot of ideas in its runtime of 70 minutes, but somehow the puzzle still remains incomplete by the end of it.
A young writer (Jeremy Theobald) follows people around London to find inspiration for the characters for his first novel. He follows specific people and never the same person again, just to see where they go and what they do but decides never to obsess about or get curious as to why they do what they do. Those are the rules he abides by. One day, he decides to follow a clean cut, smart-looking fellow who goes by the name Cobb (Alex Haw). Cobb quickly figures out that he is being followed and confronts the young writer. Cobb introduces himself as a thief, who burgles the houses of people he finds interesting and asks the young writer to accompany him on his burglaries. The young writer becomes infatuated with a young woman (Lucy Russell) whose house he burgles along with Cobb and then things start to go wrong for him.
With a budget so low, a film with a story as gutsy as this deserves high praise. To be honest, "Following" starts off spectacularly, skimming the streets of London with inspiring cleverness that makes the city look as tempting as it makes it look dangerous, and Nolan slowly builds the tension the narrative requires. The writing in the first few sequences is outstanding, and Nolan delves into the story as soon as the film begins. The two lead characters, the young man and Cobb, are meticulously written so that the viewer gets a useful insight into their minds, what they are thinking. And that's one very important aspect of the film: You need to guess what the characters are thinking even though they don't voice it out loud. And those are pretty much all the positives I have to say about the film.
Somewhere in the midst of the second-half, the film cripples. And that's very unfortunate because Nolan's got some great ideas up his sleeve, and he makes a big flaw of letting one on too soon. After that, the film turns into a drama instead of a mystery for the plot continues to unfold in a frustratingly predictable manner. What's left to enjoy is some kind of twist that unfurls in the last sequence, managing a graceful conclusion to a decent feature. But the plot does not attempt to avert what's about to happen and the conclusion does not differ much from the one you might've guessed sometime during the film.
Of the performances, Theobald and Haw are convincing. Haw, who plays the cunning Cobb, certainly looks the part and delivers well. The same goes for Theobald. Russell, on the other hand, lacks the urgency that her character was required to throw up in a traumatic situation. Playing the role of a seductress, she comes off as wooden instead of charming, thus remains totally unconvincing in her performance.
"Following" has wit and diabolical cleverness stashed up somewhere in its stupendously structured plot. It is a film that won't disappoint you, though when the plot concerns a mystery, I expect it to keep me guessing till the very end. Sadly, "Following" fails there.
A young writer (Jeremy Theobald) follows people around London to find inspiration for the characters for his first novel. He follows specific people and never the same person again, just to see where they go and what they do but decides never to obsess about or get curious as to why they do what they do. Those are the rules he abides by. One day, he decides to follow a clean cut, smart-looking fellow who goes by the name Cobb (Alex Haw). Cobb quickly figures out that he is being followed and confronts the young writer. Cobb introduces himself as a thief, who burgles the houses of people he finds interesting and asks the young writer to accompany him on his burglaries. The young writer becomes infatuated with a young woman (Lucy Russell) whose house he burgles along with Cobb and then things start to go wrong for him.
With a budget so low, a film with a story as gutsy as this deserves high praise. To be honest, "Following" starts off spectacularly, skimming the streets of London with inspiring cleverness that makes the city look as tempting as it makes it look dangerous, and Nolan slowly builds the tension the narrative requires. The writing in the first few sequences is outstanding, and Nolan delves into the story as soon as the film begins. The two lead characters, the young man and Cobb, are meticulously written so that the viewer gets a useful insight into their minds, what they are thinking. And that's one very important aspect of the film: You need to guess what the characters are thinking even though they don't voice it out loud. And those are pretty much all the positives I have to say about the film.
Somewhere in the midst of the second-half, the film cripples. And that's very unfortunate because Nolan's got some great ideas up his sleeve, and he makes a big flaw of letting one on too soon. After that, the film turns into a drama instead of a mystery for the plot continues to unfold in a frustratingly predictable manner. What's left to enjoy is some kind of twist that unfurls in the last sequence, managing a graceful conclusion to a decent feature. But the plot does not attempt to avert what's about to happen and the conclusion does not differ much from the one you might've guessed sometime during the film.
Of the performances, Theobald and Haw are convincing. Haw, who plays the cunning Cobb, certainly looks the part and delivers well. The same goes for Theobald. Russell, on the other hand, lacks the urgency that her character was required to throw up in a traumatic situation. Playing the role of a seductress, she comes off as wooden instead of charming, thus remains totally unconvincing in her performance.
"Following" has wit and diabolical cleverness stashed up somewhere in its stupendously structured plot. It is a film that won't disappoint you, though when the plot concerns a mystery, I expect it to keep me guessing till the very end. Sadly, "Following" fails there.