To Die (or Not)

Ok, first of all this movie isn't in spanish, it isn't a spanish dialect. That comment is really offensive to all the catalonians, ok let's see english is a "dialect" of latin as catalan is a "dialect" of latin. Please before you write about something, you better know what you are talking about. You couldn't understand the dialogues because it's a completely different language. Catalan is a language spoken by 10 million people, and it has an incredible history. But let's talk about the movie, it's a really good one, of course it could be better but our independent cinema has a budget that could only pay the first 5 minutes of any american "independent" film. The story is really good, the idea is great but it could be treated better, nevertheless it's a good story and Sergi Lopez is great in his small role as an assassin, who realize that he has ruin his whole life. Ventura Pons is a good director but sometimes he made films that look too much indie or independet that can ruin a movie.

Great idea for a story. If one person's destiny were altered (in this case, not dying), how might that event change the lives of numerous other people, or in this case, prevent seven others from dying. This great idea pulled me to this film at the Seattle Int. Film Festival. But great ideas don't always turn out the way you would have wanted them to when in the creative hands of someone else. What results is 8 black and white vignettes lasting about 7 minutes each where people die in different manners (overdose, choking, etc.) followed by a 30 minute "what if..." conclusion in color that shows a different destiny for the seven others.

But before you get to this somewhat interesting ending, you must endure these gritty, stupid, poorly written, over acted "scenarios" that has you wanting to yell at the screen "Will someone hurry up and die so we can get on with it". In seven minutes, you can't learn enough about these pathetic people to care about any one of them and when you know what's going to happen in scene after scene it make for a very grueling time at the movies. Some of the scenes are played as very tragic and some are quite slapstickish and had the audience laughing, not really because it was funny, but because it was ridiculous and it gave us a way to blow off frustration and vent back at the film.

With it's look, staging, feel and confusing Spanish dialect (this wasn't the Spanish I learned in school and can follow in most Spanish movies), the movie has a very definite "foreign film" feel to it, at least everything I fear from seeing foreign films. This may work for some, but not for this American boy (and devout movie lover).

I'm probably one of the few Americans who seeks out films by Ventura Pons. I'm not a fan of the director, but as a student of Catalan, his films are the only ones I've been able to find in the language. Unfortunately most of what I've seen (El Mar, Caresses) are ugly, brutal, and self-conscious. Fortunately, Morir (o no) "To Die (Or Not)" is a much better film than the two I just mentioned.

That's not to say it's a walk in the park. The review who said the series of vignettes in the "To Die" section are too long and not very interesting was quite right. Furthermore, they're right in line with Pons' notoriously awful and improbable dialogue ("Why am I a lizard?" one character sobs), bizarre parental figures (the two mothers in this movie are both self-pitying, neurotic guilt manipulators, a la "Caresses"), and improbability (a drunk man breaks the top of an already-opened bottle to drink the last drops).

With most of these characters, sharing their seven last minutes with them in their whining, crying, yelling final moments is rough business.

And yet...

The movie has some wonderful surprises. I won't give away the twist that changes everything in the "Or Not" section, but it's insightful and inspiring, and might be the only testament to religious faith I've seen in any movie from Spain. The "Or Not" section guides us through a chain reaction showing surprising interrelationships between all the characters, with all of then saved by one simple change.

Still, the framing story (Yes, there's a framing story, too) seems inchoate and unconvincing. To Die (Or Not) has some genuine inspiration and is a big step in the right direction for Sr. Pons, but in my opinion, he's got a bit further to go.