[fyodor]

Got my Gravida in the mail today. Having previously read the reviews pryor posted, there were no surprises plot-wise. It is however, one of those films where knowing the entire story in advance actually adds to the viewing experience rather than detracting from it. I enjoyed my second look more than the first.

Although there is a linear storyline, it’s more about mood and emotion. It’s about the space Kristin is in, pregnant and lonely. Things that go a long way towards getting this across are the pacing, nice and slow with some relatively lengthy shots for such a short film, and the music, some great, sparse songs that are mostly just vocals and quiet acoustic guitar. ‘Careless Love’ is especially poignant.

A lot of camera time is also devoted to one-person scenes with no dialogue and little sound. It’s not a ‘sit back and munch some popcorn’ kind of movie. It’s about something more than a catchy story trying to appeal to as large an audience as possible.

Adam Kukic does a fine job as the delivery guy. He’s believable and natural. Rachel Shaw is good through most of the film but I wasn’t too enamored with her crying performance. She appeared to be really forcing it. The snot was a nice touch though.

What I didn’t like about Gravida was that I felt absolutely no empathy for Kristin. Things that turned me off to feeling sympathetic were her being bitter enough about the guy that dumped her to leave his mutilated photo out for her new date to witness, the amount of wine she consumed even though she was pregnant, and the fact that she was attempting to get the guy to sleep with her on a first date without bringing the conversation around to her condition. It wouldn’t be a stretch to suppose that she got pregnant on purpose to hook the guy who dumped her. She just seemed like that sort of girl.

So when the film ended I felt it had done an excellent job of characterizing a person I didn’t care about. It may be I’m just too much of a sociopath to feel sorry for people who feel sorry for themselves, but I would have liked Gravida more if I could have cried with her.

Now that may not have been the point, but the music made me feel otherwise. The music was getting the sadness across. But I wasn’t sad for Kristin.

I still liked Gravida a lot, and there is promise that we could see some great stuff from McNelly down the road.


Question for pryor (or anyone else who might know the answer): There was something in the sound – or missing from the sound – that made it obvious this was a low budget movie. I’ve seen some big budget films with little to no sound (Antonioni comes to mind) where this works without seeming cheap. So what is it? It happens a lot in low budget Canadian productions. Could be something about the lighting as well but I think it's the sound that gives me that feel.