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Gerry 2003 |
Review by Jonathan Cornwell |
Directed by Gus Van Sant
R, 103 min. (language) |
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Starring: Matt Damon, Casey Affleck
Producers: Danny Wolf
Screenplay: Gus Van Sant, Matt Damon, Casey Affleck
Cinematography: Harris Savides
Distributor: ThinkFilm
Released: 2.14.03 (Limited) |
Rating:
  (out of ) |
Gus Van Sant's astonishing Gerry is a strident response to his growing number of critics, who claim that his recent films, such
as Good Will Hunting and Finding Forrester, vanquished his more
experimental, avant-garde aspirations. A visually stimulating and ethereal, existential examination of the human condition,
Gerry challenges both the nerves and the patient-impaired viewer. From its opening scene, which follows a
weathered car down a lonely, desert highway accompanied by Arvo Pärt's inspiring "Spiegel im Spiegel," Van Sant's
brooding film quickly communicates its artistic sensibilities. Two young men (who simply call each other "Gerry"),
stoically but powerfully portrayed by Matt Damon and Casey Affleck, sit in silence as they arrive at their off-the-beaten-path
destination, where they hope find "the thing," which could reference anything from a search for God to a keg party in the desert.
It's not long until the two find themselves hopelessly lost in the seemingly unending expanse of the desert, exchanging few
words between their individual crises. Gerry is primarily concerned with thrusting the viewer into the helpless,
speechless state of mind that befall the two Gerrys; it trumpets its intentions with an unbearable silence and the vast,
desolate, unmerciful landscape that stalks its victims.
It's important to point out that the average moviegoer will either be too confused, impatient, or bored to tears by what the
film has to offer; in fact, most audience members will have found the exits long before the film's poignant conclusion
arrives. In a film that runs 103 minutes, there may be five minutes of dialogue. Van Sant treats words like rare treasures
amidst the rocky, unrelenting surroundings, something that both relieves and heightens the tension between the young men.
The two life-long friends share sporadic utterances only to assure the other's presence. The longest conversation comes
over a campfire as Affleck's Gerry calmly explains his latest video game excursion to Damon's Gerry, who nods only to
acknowledge his own growing discontent. The humor that suffuses a nightmarish scenario only temporarily eschews the
coming calamity.
At the heart of Gerry is a confident filmmaker who is interesting in transporting the audience's mindset into the
terrifying prospect of being lost in a sea of inhospitable conditions. As we ponder the thought of walking endlessly through
a desert without food or water, Van Sant is more concerned with the strained relationship between the Gerrys and
themselves. He shows us this with the aforementioned humorous interludes and the film's most important scene, which
sees the Gerrys walking briskly side-by-side, bobbing in and out of unison, as if to represent the rift that is developing
between them. Later, in the film's more transcendant moment, one Gerry must carry-out an act of mercy while
deciding his own fate as they lie exhausted and dehydrated on a salt lake terrain. The psychological torture becomes
readily apparent as the two walk slowly upon the lake's netherworld features. And Pärt's haunting, multi-dimensional score
underscores the young men's journey into the unknown.
With a nod to Hungarian filmmaker Bela Tarr and Samuel Beckett's Waiting for Godot, Van Sant constructs
Gerry with an allegorical richness that aches with a grandeur as palatable as the Gerrys' visions of oases that
cruelly raises hopes before fading into bewildering oblivion. The film's fleeting sense of camaraderie quickly fades after
a scene which sees the two men discuss how one of them will lighten the fall of the other, who stands atop a large rock
with no way down but to jump. Van Sant dissects both Damon's stronger Gerry and Affleck's weaker Gerry through
extended closeups and exchanged glances that act as a fetter between their unforgiving surroundings and each other.
In one scene we see Damon's Gerry lost in the shame of his condition while Affleck's Gerry tearfully stares into the
arid prison that threatens his existence. It's at this moment that Van Sant tips his hand, as if to say there will be no
easy resolutions, which could also be a nod to nature's law of the survival of the fittest.
The meditative cinematograhy by Harris Savides only emphasizes the duality of the beautiful but deadly landscape.
Long shots of the vast desert, including sparse vegetation and intimidating mountains, dominate the film as surely as it
does the Gerrys' perspective. Van Sant tests our patience with extended shots of the two men walking, walking, and
walking some more as if dutifully marching toward their own demise. Never has a compass been more desirable.
In the film's closing sequences, it becomes ambiguous as to the true nature of Van Sant's elegant design. It can be interpreted
many ways, but it seems reasonable to assume that one Gerry must conquer the other, as if putting childish things behind
him, in order to reach manhood. Moreover, it's entirely possible to envision the two Gerrys as really one Gerry divided
by two conflicting halves. The Gerry that emerges at the end of the film has found both peace and unsettling regret,
an arduous journey that wreaked havoc on his hallucinatory state of mind. His body may have survived, but his psyche
still seems lost in the wasteland of childhood idealism.
© 2003 Jonathan Cornwell
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 | Masterpiece - Film perfection |
| Excellent - A Must See |
| Good - Highly Recommended |
| Fair - Worth seeing |
| Average - Viewable, but not recommended |
| Below average - View at own risk |
| Poor - Avoid at all costs |
| Very poor - An embarassment to the film industry |
| Zero | Awful - One of the worst films ever made |
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