The Roads Not Taken

source: The Roads Not Taken

Contrary to many negative reviews published by various critics of world renown, watching Sally Potter's latest feature "The Roads Not Taken", with its name borrowed from a Robert Frost poem of relevant nature, struck me deep to my soul's core. As a person currently dealing with and witnessing a loved one go through dementia, I daresay this portrayal of a life fallen apart and the performances delivered by the actors could not have been more realistic and convincing.

The roads not taken was a film that had great cast and one on paper great idea but even if cast worked well,that idea wasnt able to be made in a better way or to be made with more precise and direction,dialogue in a film was getting repipative after some time and story was in mess in some scenes that were suppose to explain better and deeper plot that they are trying to showcase,bardem didnt get a lot of lines in this film but he was able to showcase pain and other emotions just from his facial expressions,elle was also very good in a film but selma felt wasted a lot ,i think that she didnt really belonged in a film or they could used some more unknown actress for that role and not someone big as her,the roads not taken was a very directorial film to me and there were many thing that should have been more better

Another legendary performance from bardem.... brilliant movie

The Roads Not Taken begins with a ringing phone over the opening credits. The credits are synced to the ringing. It took me years to get past the beginning of Once Upon a Time in America, beginning as it did with an incessantly ringing telephone. Every time I'd just throw my hands up and say not today, Sergio! But eventually I got over that hump and was richly rewarded. Which is why I simply dug my fingernails into my palms and waited this one out. I'm glad I did. For whatever reason, there's always a good movie on the other side of an interminably ringing phone. (It has a point, the ringing. It's thematic.) The movie is hypnotically paced. Somewhere in the back of my mind I imagined myself glancing at my watch, stopping the film, and doing something else with my time. But I never glanced at my watch. Not once. OK, there was the one time I checked how much longer the film had to go, but not because I was bored -- it was because I was worried it would end too soon. The performances are -- let me say this. It's not fantasy. I thought the premise (or at least my initial interpretation of the title) was going to go in more of a whimsical About Time-ish direction. Like this is a man who is experiencing a supernatural event in which he must choose which path to take. It's not that. It's very much a man with dementia existing in different places in his memories, envisioning different choices, while his daughter tries to connect with him in the present. So the performances are brilliant. There was a moment in a cab early in the movie when I was afraid Sally Potter was going to do like what Terrence Malick did with those three little weird movies of his. You know the ones I mean. Where he just got his video camera and followed actors around. They were like, "So where's the script, Terry?" And he was like, "JUST DO WHATEVER YOU WANT, I'LL FIGURE IT OUT IN POST." There's a bit in a Costco parking garage that's just perfect. Lastly, I want to talk about the music. It's the best thing about the movie. I will be buying the soundtrack. I haven't bought a film soundtrack since The Mission. Oh and one more thing, with regards to phones ringing in films -- there's a limit. It's two. Two rings! That's all you get! If you need more you gotta use silent film intertitles. Them's the rules.

Did you see homeless people walking somewhere without destination and talking to themselves? That's basically the story. Good actors, real life setting, this all could easily happen in one's day life in one's head. But as a movie it lacks of... something is not enough, it's like... incomplete.

The acting performances for the most part were good, but the narrative slips in and out of flashbacks most of the time too quickly to give you a position to take. The film is mostly about a child caring for a parent with dementia. The only problem it's hard to believe she even knew him much less loved him as much as shown. It's basically almost two hours of watching how well the main actor can act being ill like that. The story shows a little complexity toward the end giving reason to all the pain the father was going through. You're not at all sure he didn't dream up his initial relationship. He had an apparent second with whom he married and had a child who is the other main character as daughter. There is a lot of wasted footage with him going back talking about a book he was writing with young women in supposedly Greece he met. Talking to them gives a little more background to an ultimately sketchy story. Some will review this title, and say it was well crafted with everything having meaning, but to me, even considering that, it lacked cohesiveness to make it a good film. I did, however, think about the dementia reality and sadness, but nothing like the film synopsis says it should be where I've read about it. The roads less taken as a title barely scratch anything meaningful in this drearily made flick.

Not a typical everyday movie but has intense acting from the main characters. The screenplay was good in depicting the pain but not good in telling a great story that could have been told effortlessly

I was initially attracted to this film by the solid cast, featuring such players as Javier Bardem, Elle Fanning, Salma Hayek and Laura Linney. While I found the acting to be overall representative of such talent, neither the plot nor the created characters struck much of a chord with me. For a very basic summary, "The Roads Not Taken" tells the story of Leo (Bardem), an older man experiencing some form of senile dementia or other cognitive impairment. While being shepherded to various appointments over the course of a day by his daughter Molly (Fanning), Leo flashes back to a series of pivot-point moments in his life where things may have turned out differently. The underlying concept of this film is solid and intriguing. That being, the notion that someone could live out certain "what ifs?" in their life and see the results of those "roads not taken" (hence the title). The problem with this specific film, however, is two-fold: First, it waits far too long to clue the viewer in on what is happening in Leo's mental flashbacks. Had I known what those were, I could have better appreciated them in the moment. As it stands, however, those scenes serve as odd non-sequiturs for almost two thirds of the film before the audience will understanding what is happening. That above failing wouldn't be so bad if the characters "in the moment" gave viewers something to become invested in, but sadly this isn't the case either. The entire story is very dour and gives little to no semblance of hope throughout the proceedings. I wanted to become emotionally invested in the characters, but it only felt like I was continually being pummeled with depressing material scene after scene. As I mentioned, the acting purely on its own merit is very good here. This is especially true for Fanning, who gives her all (as usual) and provides the only true emotion of the entire picture that viewers may care about or latch on to. That being said, it was a little sad seeing her give 100% in the acting department for a story that simply didn't live up to such a performance. Overall, "The Roads Not Taken" is a great nugget of an idea that is largely rendered inert by a confusing narrative and lack of context to care about the characters. I wanted to get on board with the idea, but the film never truly inspired me to do so.

A sad story about being human. Well shot and an enjoyable tale. Recomended.