The Welts
Just 24 hours after seeing what I then thought was going to be THE film to beat at this year's Minneapolis/St. Paul International Film Festival, I saw this film from Poland, which is not only the NEW film to beat at this festival, but may wind up being the film to beat THIS YEAR. Is it really that good? Not exactly... it's actually better. In fact, it's flat-out brilliant.
"The Welts" tells the rather harrowing story of a 30-year-old man narrating the story of his childhood as he stands staring into a bathroom mirror. It seems that as a young boy, his stern, disciplinarian father constantly beat him and humiliated him... "For his own good", of course, telling him that if his father didn't do it to him, the WORLD would. Finally having enough, he runs away from home, and the film then moves forward in time to show us the man he becomes... a person frighteningly similar to the father he hated.
If this sounds like a downbeat story, well... it only is up to a point. Facing the horrors of child abuse and the way it can turn the abused into an abuser himself, and someone afraid to admit to any "soft" emotions, is certainly a tough experience. But not only is that a problem faced by so many that understanding it better can only be to the good, but "The Welts" is ultimately a very hopeful film. It doesn't just wallow in the horror, but shows us how it's possible to ESCAPE the horror... how we don't have to follow the same path our parents walked, and even how sometimes... SOME times... it's possible for someone who has been responsible for pain and misery to realize they were wrong and change.
"The Welts" is not just a film about child abuse, either. It's ultimately a film that will be of interest, even fascination, for anyone who has ever begun to think that they were becoming exactly the person that one or the other of their parents were and reacting with horror. It's also for anyone who has simply has a complicated, hard to understand relationship with one or more parents. I guess that takes in most people, doesn't it? It's a film that takes you through pretty much the complete range of whatever emotions it's possible for a film to make you feel, and leaves you at the end with a strange mixture of exhaustion, hope and inspiration. It also has the absolutely single
best , most perfect ending of any film I've yet seen in this millenium, as we finally find out what mirror our narrator is staring into and why.
I don't give "ratings" to films in this column, but I thought it was relevant to mention that in the log I keep of what films I see, when and where, I do... ratings from one to then. This is the first film I've seen in at least three years that I've rated a full ten out of ten. It really is that amazing. It's unfortunate that at present, it has no scheduled release dates in Twin Cities theatres... it does have two more screenings at the festival, though, so keep checking the daily movie listings. As for myself, well... with April just barely begun, I think I may have already found the number one movie on my 2005 Top Ten.
posted by Joe Bunce at
4:21 PM
1 Comments:
Just to clarify... if you interpreted my comments as signifying any personal experience with this, that is definitely not the case. There was no parental abuse of any kind in my background, and I have considerable admiration for many aspects of my father's life, not the least of them being the way he was able to overcome the effects of the way he was raised and the philosophies that were drilled into his head, and able to get to the point of admitting that in spite of the many differences in our lifestyles, he was actually proud of me... at least partially because of the way I had no hesitancy to live my own life and not feel forced to live up to expectations.
As for the fim itself, I hope I made it clear that the movie ultimately makes the same case that you do in your comment... that in spite of the way an abusive childhood can and often does affect a person, it doesn't have to do so, and that abuse victims can leave the past behind and live very happy lives, as the character in this film ultimately does. It's a very hopeful movie, ultimately, witha very hopeful message, and that's one of the things that made it so moving and powerful for me.
Finally, I'm just a bit puzzled by your reference to "the one that write the "dysfunctional book." This doesn't refer to anything in my review, and I'm afraid I don't get the reference. I hope this doesn't indicate how out of touch I am, but could I ask you to clarify?
At any rate, thanks for reading...
By
Joe Bunce, at 8:01 AM
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