This movie is one of the most depressing things I've ever seen. It's just crushingly sad from start to finish, I laughed once at a very small conversational joke but apart from that it was just horrible. I can't remember the last movie I saw which has made me so thoroughly unhappy. I missed the first five or ten minutes so if they reveal the whole mockumentary bit there, I guess it would be a bit different. When the characters are revealed to be fake at the end it's less of a "Oh, ha-ha! Great idea filmmakers! You're so inventive" and more of a "Thank god nothing so tragic actually happened." and when it says "everyone else: real!" as if it's some sort of prank, I just got confused. There was no Ali G style joke played on any of the people, throughout the movie everyone just shows the same feelings one has when watching this movie; sympathy and disbelief. I have to conclude that the movie is supposed to be as sad as it is, especially because of the directing. Shots like the trip from Quebec to Toronto where the camera is violently shaking and discomforting are obviously out of place in a movie meant to be a comedy. There is also a long shot in a bar later in the movie where the camera goes in a circular motion from the floor to the ceiling and around the room which evoked such negative feelings that it must have been intentional. The manager was, at times, rather funny in his ridiculous stupidness, but in the context of the rest of the film's melancholy the humor of this character was lost and the viewer is left, once again, thinking "I feel so bad for these people." All in all I wouldn't really recommend this movie to anyone, unless you want to explore the confusing ridiculousness of the film and experience the crippling depression it evokes for yourself. But you might as well just go watch a good movie instead.
Review of Greg & Gentillon
