I saw this at The Music Hall in Portsmouth, NH. It’s a great film to watch in a theatre.

The Japanese parts were interesting enough, but the movie as a whole was heavy-handed emotion manipulation.

Alejandro González Iñárritu was on “The Treatment” today to talk about this film. You can listen to the interview or podcast it. ;-)

It’s one of those movies where the scenary takes a lot of the focus. Some people would get bored by this. It’s along the lines of Constant Gardener x 4 stories. It examines how influential Americans are in different situations, how Americans treat Mexicans, being a deaf mute in society – especially one in the neon lit, audio and visual intense city of Tokyo, and the special treatment and expecations of Americans in a foreign country.

A bit hard to believe some of the tour members would be so heartless, but they didn’t want to give a big roll to those actors. The Mexican wedding provided some relief from the tension.

Lies were also a big theme. The children lieing about what they did at first, and then the Mexican nanny trying to get home before she was found out. Both lead to trouble.

Some ask what you make of such a movie that has no conclusive ending. I think it just captures two days in the life of some people.

I think they could have added more to the story of the Japanese father. He could have gotten into more trouble for being the owner of the gun? But it was already a 2 hour movie.

Movie also deals with the vulnerability of humans. Blanchett’s character being shot and the children and the nanny suffering from heat stroke in the desert.

I disagree that it was in any way like Crash. The story in Crash was more profound.