Red Road - 2006

Movie #169

4 stars

Jackie's job as a security surveillance monitor in Glasgow allows her to journey into the lives of others...as well as her own.  Zooming from one camera to another, she sees someone from her past.  Jackie tries to understand the past but her future is just as perplexing.

Cast: Kate Dickie, Tony Curran, Martin Compston, Nathalie Press, Paul Higgins, Andrew Armour

Director: Andrea Arnold



This is the first film in the Advance Party series, a concept by Lars Von Trier (Antichrist), Lone Scherfig and Anders Thomas Jensen.  I am already excited.  I love Jensen...writer of Adam's Apples and After the Wedding.  The three films in this series have certain rules--  they must take place in Scotland, filmed within 6 weeks, have a budget of less than 1 million pounds and use the same characters.  This sounds pretty cool but I do have one concern...are 2 more movies going to be just as good as this one using the same characters.  They have big shoes to fill.


Like:  The concept is very interesting.  What would it be like to be able to see every single street...every single person walking in the US.  First of all, it would be creepy.  Second of all, it might be a whole lot safer.  Or more unsafe?  It all depends on the person in charge of keeping the people safe I suppose.

Like:  The shots of Glasgow were really cool.  But at the same time we only saw a couple of different places...mostly Red Road.

Dislike:  I thought I was pretty good at understanding people's accent but this movie was unbearable at times.  Some of the characters I could barely understand.  The main character, Jackie, was very easy to understand though.

Caution:  The sex scenes in this film were very very explicit...maybe even a little bit gross...but they were not in there just to have sex. It did add to the film.

Overall Recommendation:  Check it out...its one of those films that may seem a little slow moving but I assure you..everything is important.

The one thing to take away from this film:  Jackie was just trying to get along with her life...but in order to do so she had to confront her past.  When she had her head near the open window in the apartment it was as if she was breathing...really living...for the first time in a long time.