Wednesday 18 February 2015
What's Your Favourite Word? Comet
Due to having little social life and an unhealthy obsession with films I already knew lots about the film Comet before I watched it. I was researching premieres for the Berlin Film Festival at work and spotting Justin Long’s face immediately made me stop: he’s just such an endearing actor, literally playing a loveable character in every film. My next delighted surprise was seeing Emmy Rossum was starring opposite him, a talent that is underused in my opinion. Finally, the cherry on the cake as they say, was that it was about parallel universes; a relationship that spans six years, jump-starting at various points throughout the film. We see two break ups, two, possibly three unions.
Instantly I thought of the similarities to Nick Payne’s play
Constellations. About to hit Broadway starring Jake Gyllenhaal and Ruth Wilson,
the play was a massive success on the West End. Roland and Marianne meet in
multiple universes, we see them finally get together, visit many turns in the
road, break ups – all because of the pivotal theme that we live in a
multiverse. According to this theory there are many other versions of ourselves
carrying out decisions or vice versa which we choose to make or not. There are
other mes out there who could be a ballet dancer (my desire when I was ten) or
even very similar to myself but instead of writing this in bed I could be
writing this on the sofa. I love this play; it’s hopeful yet quite sad, but
also about real love. With only two actors the ability to portray many
dimensions is tricky! Comet appeared to be a film version of this, or at least very
similar, tackling themes of fate, choice and reality.
Comet is a unique romantic film. It’s been pushed as an
indie-rom/com. Thus 500 Days of Summer-esque? I guess, maybe they’re saying that
because of Justin Long’s presence, a regular figure in roms and coms. Like
Constellations the film jumps between moments with a clear
change of transition. However, this struck me more as moments in time not
between parallel universes. We see the couple (Dell and Kimberly) at crucial points
in their relationship which flow, almost hiccup, into each other, repeatedly
and with no structure. This could be timelessly, but I saw it as defined by
time – ‘this is the time we broke up’ ‘this is when we got back together’ –
instead of what is true and what is false. We do get a sense that it isn't
reality; the cinematography is exquisite, sometimes bright and over exposed
with electric green grass, or so soft with pale back light the character’s face
is blurred, which heightens the idea of non-reality. Even so, I would have
liked more ideas of fate and choice, as the focus on time means it all
happened. Only the last scene alters this. An earthquake takes place without
either of them noticing, day turns to night at the click of fingers, two suns
are in the sky. We are obviously in another dimension and this might not be
real. If the whole film had followed this structure (real or not real) it would
have been really interesting!
Apart from that I really liked the film. Moments made me cry, you
just want to shout at the characters DON’T BE SO STUPID as you can see what’s
coming. Dell and Kimberly are perfect together but it takes them a long time to
truly see it. Justin Long just needs to stop mumbling his lines. Then
everything will be great.
Also, my title is a line from the film. No one's favourite word is comet...
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