Simply Perfect

One of the most extraordinary films you will see this year. Take that as you want.

It's easily one of the freshest, sharpest and most enjoyable films of this year.

The story, direction, characters, and writing/dialogue is akin to taking a tranquilizer shot to the neck, but everything else was so well done.

I had never heard of Keith Gordon's Waking The Dead before tonight. After watching it just now, I am emotionally exhausted, and my mind is in overdrive analyzing every perfect piece of this well thought out puzzle, and reeling trying to process and deal with the raw sadness and electric, haunting nature of the mystery that encases the story like a chilling road map of the two main characters emotions. I am so affected by this one that I'm scared I'll screw this review up with my rambling adjectives and poetic mumbling that's become my trademark. There are a lot of films I like, some I love, but it takes a true gem to make it into my pantheon of all time favourites. This made it with one viewing. What can I say. Billy Crudup, who I've never been blown away by (although he's solid in Big Fish) gives an award worthy turn here as Fielding Pierce, an ambitious coast guard operative who climbs the ladder of politics and aspires to be a congressman. He is concise, democratic, and has a by the numbers view of the world. He meets Sarah Williams (Jennifer Connelly), who couldn't be more different than him. She's an activist, focused on helping the world one rally, one church, one ounce of compassion at a time, as opposed to institution and organized parties. Despite these differences, they fall deeply, hopelessly, eternally in love. Connelly is a touching wonder as Sarah, expelling warmth and fiery concern with her performance. The two of them together make the most convincing on screen couple I've seen in a while, and I couldn't take my eyes off any scene with them. Now.. the film's opening scene is Fielding watching a news report of her death, a car bombing in Chile. It then time jumps between scenes of their budding relationship in the 70's, to Fielding in the early 80's, on a career upswing. Only problem, he suddenly begins to be haunted by waking visions of Sarah, her voice in his head, her figure in the streets calling to him, memories of her flooding his perception and causing him to see her everywhere. Is she still alive somewhere? Is he losing it? The film makes a very brave choice and decides never to give us one answer, even at the end. Crudup owns the part, especially in the scenes with Connolly, they are absolutely sensational together. The script goes from intriguing mystery to thoughtful treatise on how we may lose what we love and want, but that it may be in service of what we are meant for. Hard stuff for anyone with a heart to swallow, and indeed some scenes later had me just drowning in tears, but a theme that I can't say will leave my consciousness soon. Hal Holbrook is there as Pierce's mentor, Janet Mcteer as his no nonsense sister, Stanley Anderson is touching as his father, and Paul Hipp agonizing in one particular scene as his black sheep brother. The film entrances from beginning to end. The soundtrack is perfect, with contributions from Joni Mitchell and Peter Gabriel fitting the ethereal tone, and an incredulous original score. The atmosphere captures Fielding's confusion and heartbreak sensationally, and some camera work from expert cinematographer Tom Richmond provides some shots that look like they're out of a dream, specifically a scene in a subway tunnel where he sees her everywhere. The story flows perfectly with the beautiful music, aching romance and otherworldly mystery to weave a flowing tapestry of pure creation. I'm always amazed when all the elements of a piece flow harmoniously together. How this was not one one most talked about film of 2000 just kills me. I can't say how it will affect you, but it left me sitting on the couch in awe of what I had just seen, on the verge of breaking down, devastated by what Had just unfolded. Maybe you'll get that out of it too. Maybe not. Just don't come to me later and say you couldn't enjoy it as much as you wanted to because I hyped it up too much. I hate when people do that, and you know who you are. Nevertheless, this film.. Deep, ponderous, an old school tearjerker, without pandering melodrama, it gives a purpose to its two star crossed lovers, and the fact that they're so removed from one another in their respective lives and outlooks only adds to the captivating nature of their unbroken love. I'll stop gushing..for now.

I have seldom seen a film that has moved me so and stayed within me long after I have seen it as Waking the Dead. Keith Gordon was a good actor, but it is as director that he has really developed his talent. This excellent drama is the best proof of that. Billy Crudup and Jennifer Connelly are marvelously matched as the tragic couple who are divided by their political views and also religion. Crudup plays Fielding, a Protestant middle-class boy who is a naval officer and has political aspirations. Connelly is Sarah, a Catholic girl who is a radical leftist activist. Her unabashed anti-conservative views clash with those of Fielding and his associates and threaten to destroy their relationship. Still it survives, because their love is too strong to be destroyed. It all comes to a sudden end when Sarah is killed by a car bomb while in Chile, trying to help the imprisoned anti-Pinochet activists. Fielding is devastated by his loss and buries himself in his political career.The ending is open to several interpretations. Is it Sarah's ghost that he sees or has she somehow gone unharmed and come back in flesh? This is what makes this film so good. It is a roller-coaster of emotions, an emotional odyssey that Fielding goes through. And I think it raises one important question-can one go back to his old self even after so many things have changed? It is as much about inner confrontation as a love story that transcends time. Billy Crudup is outstanding here and he makes this film work. This film would be wasted with a weaker actor in the leading role, I believe. Same goes for Jennifer Connelly and her role. They have an awesome chemistry which makes them so believable as a love couple. Ed Harris also makes an appearance here, although it is very short unfortunately. Other actors make a fine supporting cast and I especially enjoyed Fielding's interaction with his father, it was important for the whole story and the film.This is about giving up the ghost, accepting the truth that the one you loved is gone from your life and can never return. This is what the ending is about really. That and keeping that love inside you.

I resonated with this picture on so many levels that I found the viewers comments as interesting and revealing as this excellent character study of the Vietnam era. However, I thought the title was poorly chosen and a bit macabre for the subject matter. I was particularly intrigued with the writer of the novel, Scott Spenser and turned to his bio for clues. Born 1945 in Washington, DC was a tip-off for me. Does this account for his awareness of the seamy side of politics and his apparently ruptured idealism? He would have been 17 when JFK was killed and in a couple of years become a prime candidate for service in Vietnam or a fast trip to Canada, as he has his flawed hero admit while explaining his cop-out by joining the Coast Guard. Spenser obviously knows about being conflicted. I just don't see Fielding Pierce as being idealistic in his political ambitions as so many readers do, at least not until the image of his lost love comes back to drive him to near mental collapse at the climax of a very physically draining political campaign. And such ventures, unless you are blessed by a very wealthy and powerful father, as with JFK and more recently George Bush -- are totally exhausting experiences in which the candidate can feel that he is absolutely alone and that the people around him are just sucking him dry. Fielding is portrayed as a totally passive pretty boy who is picked up by a powerful King Maker and who appears to have not a single political or social thought, whether his own or anyone else's, not even his eminently lovable and totally idealistic lover. So he loved the sex, but what else? And who doesn't? He had a childish dream, which he casually puts forth, of wanting to be President. Which is the sum total of his political and social awareness in so far as the story goes, until the image of his lost love finally reconstructs his insensitive soul. I was particularly struck by the writer's very short line that no one would have voted for JFK if they had really known him. How did that one get by the Hollywood censors? And did this account for the less than glowing reception this very well acted and directed "sensitive" story actually received? Did Jody Foster or Ed Harris approve that line? Can it be that these presumably politically sensitive Hollywood stars do not sit at the feet of the Democratic Party's latter day Saint Francis? They both must have had something to say about the script before they became attached to this project.Hmm. I find these clues fascinating. I'll have to watch this one again. And read more about it.

What made this film so hauntingly beautiful was that fact that the ghost being chased wasn't just Sarah - it was who they both were in their youth, and the overwhelming emotion and honesty that is first love. Was Fielding really seeking Sarah or who he once was - what he once stood for when he loved her? Sometimes when we grow up we let our well-meant integrity, even our simplest dreams, die under the 'reality' of who we end up becoming. I thought this film did an excellent job at showing someone mourning his youth, his wild ideas - and his truest love. I thought Billy Crudup and Jennifer Connelly both did amazing jobs - the intensity of their performances is what really drove the story. Beautiful acting, beautiful movie.