Masterpiece.
(though I may be alone in this).
This movie is so sprawling, so ambitious, and it goes in so many directions that it's almost dizzying. You can't really say what it's about, because it's about everything. Life, death, love, loss, regret, confidence, sex. I could go on.
The story deals with a high school girl (Anna Paquin) who tries to make casual conversation with a bus driver (Ruffalo), and the driver goes through a red light and kills a pedestrian. She struggle cope with what this means, what it's like to have that accident on your conscience, and the weight of trying to restore your idea of order when you're so young and naive but still needing to do the right thing.
The current version is about two and a half hours long. Unfortunately, there is some really odd editing in this, which isn't TOO distracting, but it reminds those who have heard the stories that there indeed is a much bigger cut out there somewhere. Personally, I want to see the eight hour version.
This movie feels so real, so lived-in. I don't know if this is a function of how young Paquin is in this role, but she's BRILLIANT. I've never particularly been a fan of her work, but in this film, she captures a character that's self-centered, rude, contemptuous and completely immature. And you totally root for her, you hope she figures it all out, you hope she finds some sort of peace. I think there's a LOT that Paquin captures about being a bratty, chatty teenager who won't listen to other peoples' opinions and think the world revolves around them, even if their intentions seem fairly altruistic.
Every scene crackles for me, personally, even though half of them feel like plotless digressions. And almost all of them are just heartbreaking. This is the novelistic approach that HBO has conquered, the type of storytelling that hasn't been matched on the bigscreen yet. Loved it loved it loved it.
