Chain (2004)

User Rating:

6.6/10   

Director:

Jem Cohen

Writer:

Jem Cohen (writer)

Genre:

Drama

Plot:

As regional character disappears and corporate culture homogenizes our surroundings, it's increasingly hard to tell where you are...

Awards:

2 wins

Cast

Miho Nikaido	...	Tamiko
Mira Billotte	...	Amanda Timms
Tarik O'Regan	...	Currency Trader
Rick Aquino	...	Piano Store Salesman
Douglas A. Scocco	...	Piano Store Salesman
Bill Stuckey	...	TV Announcer
Minda Martin	...	Amanda's Half Sister
Robert C. Gibson	...	Motel Manager
Anne Truitt	...	Woman in Car and Parking Lot
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Vanessa Hope	...	Corporate Executive (as Vanessa Wanger)

Runtime:

99 min

Country:

USA | Germany

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.33 : 1

Company:

Antidote Films (I)

Quotes:

Tamiko: [narrating] When I was small, I did not have my own money to buy the things I wanted. My friends and the other students would buy many things, and I was ashamed. Beautiful things would come in the stores, and everyone at school was so excited. There were characters with their own shows on TV and video games and toys. You see them and almost feel like crying, because there is one that seems so special for you.

Movie Connections:

Featured in The 20th IFP Independent Spirit Awards (2005) (TV)

Beauty in the Mundane

In a chain, one element leads to another which leads to another and there is little change from one element to the next. It is this idea that Chain portrays well. With shots of shopping malls, highways, and office parks from around the country, Chain shows how uniform American culture has become with the help of corporations. What it perhaps does better, is show beauty in the mundane. Chain is filled with scenes presenting simple beauty of breeze through a construction site, contrasting colors of parking lots at dusk, reflections in the glass of office buildings, and the graphic beauty in a confluence of stairways. The story in Chain is subtle. Two different women tell in a sometimes diary, sometimes inner voice, their personal takes on the sameness of place to place and the desires to want what you don't have. The story is almost too subtle at times, however, with the audience wishing that it would have lead to a stronger point.