See the movie Between, if at all possible, with a group of friends, then plan on talking about it for quite a while. It's sufficiently robust to support multiple interpretations, all of them absorbing. If your group is anything like the one I saw it with, they'll spot several ways to unravel it.
Some in my group tried sorting out what happened by diagramming a plausible order for the thriller-type clues. To their credit, together, they managed. Others insisted it as a psychodrama. Still others saw it mainly as a love story, but they couldn't agree whether the ending was happy or not. One viewer saw the movie as a post-modern essay on "between-ness" in which the characters are wavering precariously between illusion and reality, hope and despair, and certainty and contingency. The movie's setting in Tijuana, a city that exudes a peculiar between-ness, supports his interpretation.
Between's cinematography, particularly the junkyard scenes, keeps rattling around in my head, giving rise to even further interpretations. I like that quality in a movie. I also like the (unsuspecting) narrator's perspective, relating her tale through triple deep layers of awareness and imagery. I could be wrong about this, though. Maybe the narrator is actually the expert witness on near-death experiences who, at the movie's outset, is being deposed in a Chicago courtroom, or perhaps one of the attorneys spellbound by his testimony.
Between is in some ways like Memento, only better, because it stirs up more creative juices. At least for our group it did. Those who don't think much about the movies they watch will quickly become bored with Between, though, as will those who rely heavily on filmmakers' well-tested conventions.
Some in my group tried sorting out what happened by diagramming a plausible order for the thriller-type clues. To their credit, together, they managed. Others insisted it as a psychodrama. Still others saw it mainly as a love story, but they couldn't agree whether the ending was happy or not. One viewer saw the movie as a post-modern essay on "between-ness" in which the characters are wavering precariously between illusion and reality, hope and despair, and certainty and contingency. The movie's setting in Tijuana, a city that exudes a peculiar between-ness, supports his interpretation.
Between's cinematography, particularly the junkyard scenes, keeps rattling around in my head, giving rise to even further interpretations. I like that quality in a movie. I also like the (unsuspecting) narrator's perspective, relating her tale through triple deep layers of awareness and imagery. I could be wrong about this, though. Maybe the narrator is actually the expert witness on near-death experiences who, at the movie's outset, is being deposed in a Chicago courtroom, or perhaps one of the attorneys spellbound by his testimony.
Between is in some ways like Memento, only better, because it stirs up more creative juices. At least for our group it did. Those who don't think much about the movies they watch will quickly become bored with Between, though, as will those who rely heavily on filmmakers' well-tested conventions.