The Tracey Fragments (2007/THINKFilm/Image Entertainment DVD)
Picture:
C Sound: C+ Extras: D Film: D
Ellen
Page is fresh off of the overrated Juno
and as expected, making bad choices, but never did I think she would make a
decision as bad as Bruce McDonald’s The
Tracey Fragments (2007) in one of the worst projects of its kind in the
indie world. Though the
not-so-magic-medium of digital editing, writer Maureen Medved’s mad mess is
about an angry, mentally troubled teenager (Page) loosing her mind and not
being able to take life sitting down anymore.
However, did all 77 very long minutes have to be all in multiple-screen
shots?
She
swears all the time, is angry and her attitude is “realistic” and shows her
“acting” ability. In comparison to Juno, she is simply repeating her
pseudo-Daria act with the same
petulant look in the stills on the back and front of the DVD case, shows the
emotional depth of her performance (there is none, except vain histrionics) and
that Juno may be one of the biggest flukes in recent Oscar history. This is embarrassing, made worse by the maker’s
inability to decide if she is schizophrenic, manic depressive or otherwise
mentally ill. That is insulting enough
in itself.
McDonald
is going backwards long after he made some independent waves with Dance Me Outside (reviewed elsewhere on
this site) but in the end, this looks like a bad experiment gone very, very
wrong and when you see this has the tagline “Something’s missing”, you know it
is the only accurate claim you’re going to get.
The
anamorphically enhanced 1.78 X 1 image is as soft as it is annoying, showing
once again that High Definition and digital have reduced too many to gimmickry
like this. There is no point, it is a
joke & insult, plus the editing and montage ideas seem so random that it is
more like a bad TV ad than anything remotely resembling a narrative and in the
worst way. The Dolby Digital 5.1 mix is
poor, especially since the sound editing cannot keep up with the picture (and
why should it) plus the recording is on the poor side overall. Extras include a trailer, contest entries for
a contest to promote this mess and an interview featurette.
- Nicholas Sheffo
