Heavy

If you think that a film about a would-be weight-watcher who bakes pizzas, with a plot as fluid and minimal as a Brian Eno soundtrack, sounds boring, then here's your chance to change your mind. Heavy is as exquisite as an Eno composition: light and thought-provoking. Victor is not a man you notice, although he is big, heavily built and always around at his mother's road-side restaurant. He seems somewhat indescribable and bloated even to those who do notice him. He bakes his pizzas in silence and hands them over without comment to the two waitressess. Victor's imagination seems to be the only lively thing about him. In one of his daydreams he rescues Callie, one of the waitressess, who in real life has shown him some interest by trying to persuade him to go on a diet. Callie has recently dropped out of college and has a relationship with a local mechanic. She is not entirely satis-fied with her conventional romance and seeks radical change. Delores, the veteran waitress of the place and something of a has-been, dislikes Callie, and her youth and looks in particular. The scenario takes a turn when the mother dies of a heart attack and leaves Victor to face his first major crisis. He isolates himself, wallowing in misery, uncapable of speaking of her death to the people around him. He slowly makes sense of his loneliness and begins to deal with things by himself in his own personal way. Free from motherly love he gets the better of his body and eventually begins to participate in life outside the kitchen. The drama reaches its catharsis in an astonishing conclusion regarding Victor's relationship with his mother and a sudden decision by Callie. Heavy is an emotional and realistic portrait of how a man who appears to be invisible finally discovers himself for the first time, a film about emotional longing and personal loss. The cinematography is uncomplicated and almost neat, and the actors manage to animate their characters. The plot moves slowly forward and sometimes seems to almost come to a standstill. Even so, the film is never boring. James Mangold, the director, says: ''I tried to minimize the words, look away from the words, make the words inarticulate. I wanted the per-formances delicate, gestures fragile, the shots and cuts precise but restrained.'' He believes that the audience would rather watch than listen to this melancholy drama. Heavy is both innovative and un- fashionable in a brave way.

Premiärstatus
Nordisk premiär: Medverkande
Pruitt Taylor Vince, Liv Tyler, Shelley Winters: Producent
Richard Miller: Manus
James Mangold: Foto
Michael Barrow: Musik
Thurston Moore: Talat språk
English