User Reviews

I just saw the world premiere of this film at the Berlin Film Festival and I was quite surprised. When I got the tickets I had no idea what it was actually about. When I was told it was about a 15-year old girl dealing with puberty I wasn't very happy about it. But then what I saw surprised me. During the first 2 minutes I prepared myself for two hours of overdone artistic cinema. But after some time, I got into it and even got attached to the girl who everybody just calls "Its". However, according to the director, this film may have been shot in only 14 days but, it took them about nine months to edit it. No wonder, since the director Bruce McDonald took the "Fragment"-part of the title by word. The film consists of hundreds of fragments of pictures, each showing different perspectives of the same moment mixing up reality and thoughts and fantasies of Tracy, the 15-year old protagonist. There are only rare scenes in which there are less then 3 fragments to be seen on screen. And the more emotional the protagonist gets, the more fragments appear. So, thus confusing you with just too much information it leaves you overwhelmed with impressions and emotions that are just too plenteous to handle. Off course, McDonald did this on purpose. It's all just a try to visualize what a teen must have to go through in puberty. After a while you get sucked into a world of bullies, disturbed parents, unanswered love, doubts and fantasies, sympathizing more and more with Tracy. Even though it was exhausting to pay attention all the time, I'd say the film is worth seeing (if you have the stamina). I have seen a lot of movies but this one was actually something new. Well, it may be exhausting but when you think of it, wasn't puberty too?!

This is an odd film. I like it, and still I can't think of it as a masterpiece.

At first glance, the picture may seem annoyingly pretentious due to its very original picture composition.

And in some ways it IS annoying. But the amazing thing is: it works pretty well. It really does compose the delicate, mysterious tune, which is the nerve of this fine movie.

Some people might think that The Tracey Fragments would benefit from a more explicit epic narrative. But the artistic mist is also the movie's strength, and I certainly did enjoy this mystery. So, give it a chance even if you're a bit amazed by all the flashing frames. It's actually possible to follow the storyline, even if the intentional non-clarity of this flick is not mastered completely.

Having said all that: Ellen Page as Tracey is a very very good choice!

... so I will say it some more. The Tracey Fragments is well acted in that there is very little acting and a lot of re-acting. Ellen Page is her remarkable self... I am so hopeful about her continuing career. Fragment is however everything everyone has said about it. It is hard to follow, but it can be followed, it is a simple story but it holds the attention, it is art, it is pretty, it is crap and it poorly done but I watched it from start to finish... knowing where it was going the whole time... why... well because it is chocked full of humans and human interactions. Beautiful humans and harsh humans. People exchanging hardships and moments of simple pleasure. I can... and often do go on and on... So I would recommend this Film to my friends who like to watch movies for more than a story.

I saw this movie at the Berlin Film Festival and did not know nothing about it before. There will be people that will call this a "masterpiece" or "pure art", and there will be a lot more people that will call this "bullshit". I wouldn't argue with neither of them. If you want to enjoy this movie, you will have to buy every idea the director came up with, otherwise you will want to leave the cinema. At every moment of the movie, the picture is split up into lots of little pictures, often showing the same scene from different camera angles. This can be exhausting at times, but it can also be very exciting.

You suddenly realize that you as a member of the audience are part of the film-making process. You are the one to edit to movie, to decide whether you want the see the long or the close shot. I found this a very interesting approach to the process of making a movie. But still, sometimes the film seems to be so random, trying hard to be special and smart. You might have to watch it a second time to really check if there's is a kind of inner logic to every scene. The movie has great moments and is full of original ideas, though sometimes it is only original for the purpose of being original and nothing else. Apart from the interesting picture language, I have to mention the gorgeous Ellen Page, who is - ultimately - THE most talented young actress there is today. I'm looking forward to her future projects.

An exercise in experimental cinema. The director is too busy experimenting with nifty editing techniques and an unusual visual style rather than focusing on telling a cohesive and interesting narrative. The director's visual tricks aren't even as effective as the director probably wants them to be. At the beginning the movie the visuals are come off as genuinely unique. By the end of the visual tricks become repetitive, annoying and irritating.

I'm usually fine with abstract, indirect, non-linear storytelling, but to keep my attention it has to be at least mildly interesting. Ellen Page is decent, but she isn't given enough to do.

My patience was tested while watching this tedious production.

If it's true, as Marshall McLuhan has suggested, that the medium is indeed the message, then "The Tracey Fragments" proves that theory in spades. This highly idiosyncratic work has as its focal point "Tracey Berkowitz - 15 - just another girl who hates herself" - a description that comes straight from the mouth of Ms. Berkowitz herself. Tracey is a deeply unhappy youngster who hates her (admittedly horrible) parents, is terrorized by all the "cool" kids in school for insufficient mammary-gland development, spends most of her nights riding the subway, hooks up with a psychotic lowlife who turns out to be a drug dealer, and searches for her little brother whom she's hypnotized into thinking he's a dog and who goes missing by a frozen river when she's supposed to be watching out for him. To help mitigate her misery, Tracey also dreams of having a relationship with a brooding "emo" bad boy at school and fantasizes that she is a famous, universally worshipped rock star.

But it is not Tracey's story that is of primary interest here; rather it's the cut-and-paste film-making style director Bruce McDonald has employed to create a sense of fragmentation and dislocation in the viewer - intended, obviously, to mirror the highly chaotic and disordered nature of Tracey's world and life. With rare exceptions, the screen is occupied by as few as two and as many as a dozen shots at a time, often portraying the same sequence from slightly different angles or at slightly different moments in time, or portraying thematically related scenes simultaneously. The question inevitably arises, is the approach effective in what it's trying to accomplish or does it serve as a distancing device for those of us who are trying to enter into Tracey's mind and world. I imagine that different viewers will come to varying verdicts on that point.

Personally, I appreciate what McDonald is trying to do here more than I admire it. "The Tracey Fragments," which Maureen Medved has adapted from her own novel, offers many probing insights into the subject of teenage angst, particularly as regards the tremendous pressure modern young people are put under to "measure up" and conform to some arbitrarily agreed-upon social standard. And "Juno"'s Ellen Page gives a stunning performance as the young woman caught in an ever-tightening web of self-hatred (this is, in many ways, the darker side of "Juno," and Page is much less mannered in this role).

But, frankly, the movie probably would have been more moving and involving without all the migraine-inducing imagery which succeeds mainly in throwing us out of the story. In fact, there is only one scene in which the split screen technique actually serves a narrative purpose - and that is when Tracey is hiding behind a curtain while her drug-dealer friend is being savagely beaten by the irate boss to whom he owes money. Most of the rest of the time, the approach feels more like a gimmick designed to separate this film from the rest of the "distressed-teen indie" pack than an artistically viable choice in its own right.

Still, if you can get past all the artiness and visual distraction, you might just find in "The Tracey Fragments" a thoughtful, sensitive and ineffably sad glimpse into a young woman's heart.

Even if it was the first film to use "Mondrian multi-frame compositions" from start to finish, this will only appeal to you if you're a) an angst-ridden 15 year old girl, b) an Ellen Page fan or relative, or c) a misled fan of "Juno" who thinks anything with Ellen is better than anything else.

The split screen (aka "Mondrian multi-frame compositions") is pretentious and ineffective except in a few selective sequences. It does work occasionally, but almost by accident -- I bet it even surprised the director when it did.

This is an art-film gone mad. Ellen is excellent playing a less-fun, and far less funny, version of Juno in a family-hell situation. Recommended if you are fighting insomnia, this is possibly the longest 77 minute film of all time.

The Tracey Fragments is a wonderful movie which everyone should all see for the experience. Most of the movie is split between three or more different camera angles. This allows the viewer to watch the movie in many different perspectives. Where this can be confusing at times, I found it wonderful and unique! I had such a blast watching this movie and trying to see every frame at least once.

The beginning of the movie will leave your head spinning for a good 20-30 minutes. Picture an empty time-line and as the movie progresses, you get to know a little from the beginning, a little from the end, a little of the middle, and repeat it until the movie finishes. It's bizarre but an experience.

One great portion of the film are the little scenes when you get dumped into Tracey's fantasy world. Sometimes you can tell it's a fantasy and sometimes you cannot. However, this then leads the viewer to wonder if future scenes are real or just a fantasy.

The highlight of the film, in my opinion, is Tracey's 'back of the bus' confessions. Throughout the movie, Tracey will pop in the movie, dressed in a shower curtain, and give a little hint or just some insight into her somewhat confused mind. It gives you a short break from the non-linear chaos of the film and sometimes will give you a chuckle.

All in all, Ellen Page yet again shows how great of an actor she really is. Her acting in this movie blows Hard Candy and Juno out of the water! The movie is all about her and I don't believe that there isn't a scene without her. I find this great because you can truly focus on the main character and her story, rather than any subplots or supporting character development. The Tracey Fragments is a must see film!!

Tracey Fragments is a very experimental film. 95% of the film is shot with two or more screens. Sometimes it's even split up as much as 100 screens! Not often do you see a film where there is more art in the editing than anything else in the film. In fact, some of the split screens act as shattered glass which seemed to be the symbolic meaning of the film where a girl's life is pretty much shattered throughout the film.

Tracey Berkowitz (played by Ellen page) is a fifteen year old girl who thought it would be funny to hypnotize her brother into being a dog. She hates her parents and her school mates. She dreams of starting a rock band with the boy of her dreams, Billy Zero. Very independent, she decides to run away from home to look for her brother. there she has her day from hell.

The first thing I'd like to comment about the film is I thought the script lacked. Ellen Page made this movie watchable but I disliked some of the scenes. In fact, some parts were so ridiculous it almost made me laugh nervously as if they were trying to make the movie corny at times. With that said, I'd have to say that Bruce McDonald did a very good job capturing Tracey with the budget that he had. It's obvious that the film was shot with a hand-held camera but it fit very well with the dark behavior and life that Tracey endured throughout the movie. I also loved the score. I read on one of the message boards for this movie that some replied that they loved and hated this movie. I agree. Some parts were so beautifully captured while some seems completely lacked and didn't fit (once again, the lacking script). The movie is exhausting at times but the last thirty minutes began to pick up again and make the movie interesting.

Ellen Page is a versatile actress and I like her a lot more when she plays darker roles such as this movie and her best performance to date, Hard Candy. I did love Juno but I like these type of roles more. The most memorial seen in the movie is when she stares her mom down and points her finger in her face while screaming at her. It's almost freaky but so well done.

If you love Ellen Page, this movie and Mouth to Mouth need to be seen with an open mind. 77 minutes of this film could feel like two hours.

My verdict 6.25/10

The Tracey Fragments is uneventful, anti-climactic and unrelentingly bleak, which in this case amounts to incredibly dull. The split screen effect is a distraction at first, and though eventually your eyes do adjust, the effect is not detrimental or supplemental to the telling of this story. The filmmaker doesn't show simultaneous action, just nonsynchronous bits of each shot. I would argue its artistic merit if only I hadn't seen this done in a dozen other "experimental" films. Though Ellen Page plays a snarky, disaffected teen very well, she had better break from that role soon, or she'll be out of work before she can say aboot.

overall, i found the movie quite entertaining and emotional. while a bit confusing at times, i feel that it added to the overall effect of the movie. the closing scene with Tracey (ellen page) walking through the park was much more powerful because there was only the single shot and the screen was no longer fragmented. i feel the fragmentation throughout created the feeling of confusion and panic common to adolescence. by far my favorite part of the movie was broken social scene's original score. it blended seamlessly throughout the movie and effectively directed the audience emotionally and visually.

i would recommend this movie to anyone. it is worth the confusing, scattered scenes and story line. it really takes you on a journey with the main character.

Tracey Berkowitz is a 15y.o. girl on a night bus, covered by a curtain shower, talking directly to you - nonsense. He memory is fragmented, chaotic, fancy, and on a loop. She has left home, is looking for her missing little brother Sonny and is in trouble.

We are drawn into Tracey's chaotic mind and soul, but also towards her path of growth from child to woman, from fairy-tale worlds to harsh reality and acceptance of the self. This is a very interesting story about a teenager that is not pretty, cleaver or happy. Although this is a movie about teenagers, there is nothing sweet about it, as presents very hard topics: rape, bullying, loneliness, lack of self-esteem, confused self-image, delusional thoughts, insecurity, and mental trouble.

Tracey's memory fragments and thoughts appear in mini-screens within the screen and on split-screen images, which show different angles of the same scene or different scenes altogether. The non-linear narrative is very challenging. Pay extra attention to the first 15-20 minutes of the film, because they are the most difficult and the ones that really give clues to understand many of the things that happen later on.

The film is more complex, visually, at the beginning, when Tracey's mind and emotions are more confused, and becomes simpler and more linear at the same pace that Tracey's mind clears, to be completely linear at the end, when she accepts herself and the events related to Sonny. In other words, Tracey's troubled mind and emotions are directly linked to the way the movie is visually organized. The movie is also full of symbolic psychoanalytical elements, from the gender of Tracey's psychiatrist and the settings in which the consultation happens, to the appearance of different animals (a crow, a horse, and "a dog"), to the way the scenes have been patched and shown to the viewer.

Ellen Page is fantastic, despite the dramatic demands of her character. She was 20 when the film was shot, but she is believable as a 15y.o. girl. That's not only her physique, is the great actress she is. The rest of the cast are OK in their respective roles: Ari Cohen and Erin McMurtry as Mr & Mrs Berkowitz; Zie Souwand as sweet Sonny; Toronto Songwriter and performer Slim Twigg as jerk Billy Zero, Julain Richings as Dr Heker, among others.

A few important flaws ruined what could have been a great movie. The main idea is brilliant but, since we get mostly Tracey's subjective approach to reality, the rest of the characters are somewhat pointless and can't be trusted by the viewer; in fact they are just hinted. I did not like the end, not the way it ended, but how the end was presented and how we get there - what triggers Tracey's epiphany? That is so because the mood of the movie and, most importantly, its tempo were not the right ones.

This is one of those movies that are a challenge for the viewers, that need of their full awareness and attention, that have a difficult knot to untie, but also one of those movies that can be interpreted in different ways and make your brain produce sparks. One of those movies that you get or you don't, nothing in between. To me, one of those movies that, the more I think about it, the more I want to watch again.

Are you ready for it?

Is there a better center for exploring simultaneous hallucinations than a "late blooming," possibly bipolar 15 year old girl, with creepy parents?

It becomes easy to run into a point of view that has confusing, shifting vision. The trick is to show enough of a world that makes sense that we can see what doesn't. You need the horizon to know when you tilt. This is hard because you have to fold the two views into one eye, seeing the girl and seeing as the girl. Some of this has to make sense spatiotemporally and some has to goof with that same sense using it against itself.

Along comes the device of multiple images on a screen. This dramatically increases the difficulty of shaping the cinematic effects, offering us challenging new dimensions.

I liked this. I think it worked. Because it works and is new — and I mean pretty much wholly new discounting Greenaway. "Time Code" and "Hotel" played with these sorts of notions experimentally. This is placed between them, and with serious intentions to hurt. Hurt it does, and that's the first milestone for something that could matter. Ellen Page is more here of what she gained fame for in "Juno." She's fantastic. It makes Hilary Swank in "Boys Don't Cry" seem pretty tame.

Ted's Evaluation -- 3 of 3: Worth watching.

I mistook the first four minutes of this movie for the gag reel.

What? There was no gag reel? Then the taxpayers of Canada need to get a refund for this literally scatterbrained waste of film stock or digital memory, whatever applies.

As the old saying goes, when you aim at nothing, you'll hit nothing. In this case, if you want people to think you have nothing important to say, then just throw all your ideas at the wall and let people think you're saying whatever sticks.

Perhaps a cogent narrative could have been carved from the ideas and passions that inspired this effort. The writer and director should have encouraged one another to apply skill and discipline to the project and make something that would be moving and meaningful to a wide audience.

But to toss a bunch of images together to end up with little more than a migraine-inducing hodgepodge is to limit the audience to young teenagers whose brains are already fried on video games and drugs.

Come to think of it, maybe turning this final cut into a video game isn't such a bad idea. All you need to do is make the picture boxes into targets. The player shoots and tries to hit as many antagonists as possible to score points. Penalties are deducted if you hit a sympathetic character.

What? There are no sympathetic characters?

In that case, a Golden Turkey Award seems like the only salvation for this mess. And then let's somehow amend Canadian law to allow unsuspecting viewers the right to sue to recover rental fees when they've been robbed by inept filmmakers.

I was looking forward to this film because of the unusual formal nature of the film: the screen is split into between two and twenty little screens at various points during the film - sometimes they are static, sometimes they float around... And while I liked the style and I think it will possibly start a trend, I can't say I actually enjoyed the content of the film. The main character, a runaway teenage girl, was obnoxious and lacking in any redeeming features. She swore in the most puerile way, and sometimes spoke to the screen in a stagy declamatory manner which wasn't suitable (for this film that is). The dialogue in general was bad and her parents couldn't act at all. As for a story - well there wasn't too much of interest going on, so I left the theatre feeling I'd seen a reasonable piece of art form-wise, but that I hadn't been moved at all.

There is so much I could say about The Tracey Fragments, it is almost like a really big and scary looking roller coaster, its definitely not for everyone, but those that like it, love it.

I will start with what i noticed first: the "fragments", the split screen, super impositions, whatever you want to call it, the editing. Its original, but there is a reason for that, all of these constant, different visuals at the same time is exhausting, at first. 10 minutes into the movie all i wanted was a complete shot with none of those extras that you eventually get used to. 45 minutes into the movie though, i was completely engrossed in the story and totally understood the director's reason for all of that stuff. And the reason is simple: it allows the audience to get inside the head of this alone and suffering teenager.

I am a teen myself and I thought that the bullying and the family life and the emotions Tracey experiences are pretty realistic, and flawlessly portrayed by Ellen Page. This is what life is like for some teens, sadly.

The script was, I thought, perfect. It is dark and disturbing and mostly pretty realistic, and most importantly (or annoyingly), it is very disjointed, you watch the story unfold but you don't figure out what is real and what isn't and how it all happened and why until the end.

The soundtrack is amazing, I loved it and it fits perfectly, I am not a fan of Broken Social Scene (who scored the film), but I am definitely going to be looking for the soundtrack when i get some time.

This movie is Canadian, and that makes me proud. This was shot in Toronto, and it was beautiful, they seemed to find the perfect location for every shot, and the director is Canadian, and Ellen Page is Canadian, and etc.

Finally, Ellen Page. I have saved this for the end because she is the best part of this movie. She is one of my favorite actors and the reason why I decided to see this movie in the first place. She is fantastic, portraying the life of this 15 year old Tracey perfectly. her performance was flawless and there was not a moment in the film where I wasn't totally believing her, or cheering on Tracey as we as the audience learn more about her. I could go on forever but simply put, she is so great, so talented.

Ever notice whenever a work of art is referred to as "experimental" it usually sucks? Not so here, if "The Tracey Fragments" is indeed experimental, I'd have to say the experiment produced successful results. The gimmick here is that the entire film is presented with multiple cameras showing different "fragments" of Tracey's memories.

In the DVD bonus feature, director Bruce McDonald says he used this method to convey the nature of memories. And true, if you think about it, how often do you have a memory that plays out like a linear story? Most often memories jump back & forth, focus on different objects, change perspective and become intertwined with other memories.

If you're ready for a disorienting experience like this, then you'll enjoy this movie because, while being difficult to digest, it's ultimately a rewarding experience. Tracey (expertly played by Ellen Page) is a 15-year-old outcast who is constantly ridiculed & abused by schoolmates, parents and strangers. The movie recounts 2 or 3 intense days in her life, beginning with the story of her missing brother, jumping back to a few days before, and eventually coming full circle and then beyond. While the story itself is linear, the narration (through Tracey's memories) is anything but linear, and the multiple cameras add a deeper dimension of confusion.

But whether you grasp every individual camera & scene or not, the story unfolds clearly, and by the end we are aware of what happened with a few dramatic surprises to boot. Although I hate the phrase "coming of age story" because it conjures up images of extreme boredom and sappiness, this movie is a great, gritty, powerful coming of age story. It's a lot like how I would imagine the book "Catcher in the Rye" with its seemingly random episodes that are glued together by a common theme. In the case of "The Tracey Fragments" (much like Catcher) the theme is about a young adolescent who sees himself/herself as the protector of a younger child; however, the protector herself is coming apart from the strain of protecting innocence while losing her own innocence.

Although the character Tracey is a lot like Ellen Page's character in "Juno" as well as her character in "Whip It", don't expect the same quirky humor because "The Tracey Fragments" is much darker and sometimes disturbing. You might crack a smile at some scenes, and she does have a few great sarcastic lines, but mostly this is a heavy drama with an emphasis on weird.

There aren't many films I can compare this to, but one that comes to mind is the excellent "Man of the Year" (2002) starring John Ritter, a movie featuring about 2 dozen actors and 2 dozen cameras filming simultaneously in real time. Another film I'm reminded of is "Pi" (1998) the directoral debut of Darren Aronofsky who also did "Requiem for a Dream", "The Fountain" and "Black Swan". If you like dark films like those with unusual visual styles, give this one a whirl.

This is my first review ever on IMDb - and iv been here since it started. But after seeing this film yesterday i just had to leave my comments.

This movie isn't for everyone. A lot of people will actually hate it - dismiss it to the garbage cage in a heartbeat...but for those who truly enjoy the art of movies, this is a gold piece.

At first i didn't think this movies was going to be anything else then just another "split screen" movie... but as we soon realize, this is so much more, and its brilliant executed. As the main character (excellent performance from Ellen page there) gets more and more emotions, they are presented to us in a way of past, present, future and fantasy - all in different small squares on the screens. It made at least me really feel all her struggling with being a teenager who hasn't found her place yet.

Thumbs up for this - it should be a must see, in ever movie class there are - for its visual.

I love Ellen Page, but I am not so sure that I love what Bruce McDonald has done with her here. It is a story about being a 15-year-old teenager named Tracey Berkowitz (Page): conflicting emotions and perceptions, a volatile compound of anger, vulnerability, curiosity, recklessness and fear. It is shot in a manner that may be unviewable for some: non-linear, fragmented scenes, and some really loud music.

Dysfunctional families, weird shrinks, mean-girls at school; it is really not so much about what is happening, but about Tracey's perception of events.

If you cant stand the ride, it is worth it. I mean, watching seven or eight fragments at a time is wild!

And, of course, Page is terrific.