BethanyReviewing Puppy (LINK)
July 17th 2008 05:07
One of my goals is to find unknown movies that are good, decent, and/or original and bring them to attention. With Puppy, I felt like I made a really good find- but it's an Australian film, and I don't know what kind of distribution it has or how well it's known. So I'm just prefacing this with: I'm an American, and I feel like this is a find of a movie.
Anyway, the story runs like this: Liz lives with her sister, who she steals from. She hits the family dog and steals an important necklace from her sister the same day, and as a result gets kicked out of the apartment (flat, if you prefer). This comes to the beginning of the movie- she trails a hose from the muffler and sticks it in the car and turns on the car, in an attempt to kill herself.
Aiden, a grizzly-looing tow-truck driver, discovers her and takes her home. He's mistaken her for his missing wife, you see, as he's absolutely bug-shit crazy. He ties her down and starts calling her Helen (his wife's name).
She spends the first portion of the movie just trying to get away. She shares a little bit of herself with him, and seems to be (for the first time in her life, the movie would indicate) being somewhat honest with him. And, I'll be honest: I didn't like her. I watched this film all the way through, and I'm still not 100% that I like her. I liked Aiden straight away- he's crazy, but it's pretty obvious that he can't help it. I kept an audio recording of my thoughts and I kept saying 'if he'd just take his meds, he'd be all right'. I like him, but he's nuttier than squirrel poo.
Eventually, through a lucky set of circumstances, she manages to turn the table on him.
The story isn't something that really wraps itself up- it sort of peaks in the middle and then rounds itself off, the denouement is long (although it doesn't feel terribly long because there are little peaks as you come down from the big conflict).
It's so weird, because I really didn't like Liz- barely at all- but the movie is very compelling. Liz, as a character, never changes. There is no character ark for her- she never really 'gets better'. She's probably in the 'thief with the heart of gold' class, but I don't like liars of any stripe and she never quits lying. She starts to lie for better reasons, but she never quits. But, even though I dislike the protagonist, I never felt like 'eh, maybe I should put something else on'.
It's a very compelling story, though, and I think that if you're willing to stretch your morals a bit (and watch a story where you may not like the protagonist) this is definitely worth catching.
Anyway, the story runs like this: Liz lives with her sister, who she steals from. She hits the family dog and steals an important necklace from her sister the same day, and as a result gets kicked out of the apartment (flat, if you prefer). This comes to the beginning of the movie- she trails a hose from the muffler and sticks it in the car and turns on the car, in an attempt to kill herself.
Aiden, a grizzly-looing tow-truck driver, discovers her and takes her home. He's mistaken her for his missing wife, you see, as he's absolutely bug-shit crazy. He ties her down and starts calling her Helen (his wife's name).
She spends the first portion of the movie just trying to get away. She shares a little bit of herself with him, and seems to be (for the first time in her life, the movie would indicate) being somewhat honest with him. And, I'll be honest: I didn't like her. I watched this film all the way through, and I'm still not 100% that I like her. I liked Aiden straight away- he's crazy, but it's pretty obvious that he can't help it. I kept an audio recording of my thoughts and I kept saying 'if he'd just take his meds, he'd be all right'. I like him, but he's nuttier than squirrel poo.
Eventually, through a lucky set of circumstances, she manages to turn the table on him.
The story isn't something that really wraps itself up- it sort of peaks in the middle and then rounds itself off, the denouement is long (although it doesn't feel terribly long because there are little peaks as you come down from the big conflict).
It's so weird, because I really didn't like Liz- barely at all- but the movie is very compelling. Liz, as a character, never changes. There is no character ark for her- she never really 'gets better'. She's probably in the 'thief with the heart of gold' class, but I don't like liars of any stripe and she never quits lying. She starts to lie for better reasons, but she never quits. But, even though I dislike the protagonist, I never felt like 'eh, maybe I should put something else on'.
It's a very compelling story, though, and I think that if you're willing to stretch your morals a bit (and watch a story where you may not like the protagonist) this is definitely worth catching.
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