Emotional Arithmetic (2008)

Good concept, poorly executed.

Entertaining from beginning to end, it maintains the spirit of the franchise while establishing it's own seal with a fun cast

Funny, strange, confrontational and subversive, this is one of the most interesting experiences you'll have at the cinema this year.

This is a coming of age storyline that you've seen in one form or another for decades. It takes a truly unique voice to make yet another one worth watching.

A group of survivors from a French based concentration camp in WWII gather for a weekend at a country home in Quebec, more than 30 years after the war. Most critics either praised this to the skies, calling it as powerful as Bergman. or they damned it for being slow, too familiar, sappy and not special. I lean more towards the positive. First of all this is a wonderful bunch of older actors (Max Von Sydow, Susan Sarandon, Gabriel Byrne, Christopher Plummer) and, as one would expect, they each bring a lot to their roles. It is also beautifully photographed.If not quite Bergman, I do buy it as 'Bergman-lite'; the same sense of the confusing complexities of the human heart, and the way earlier damage always comes back to haunt us. Yes it has a few over-the-top moments, and it ultimately didn't pack quite the punch I expected, but I was never bored, despite the deliberate pace, and found each of these lost souls quite compelling.

I have no doubt the novel this script is based on is great, and the actors do try hard, unfortunately, the director just completely misses the mark, possibly due to an incredibly bad script????? Anytime a movie spends so much time percentage on scenery, it's usually because it's trying to impose some emotion missing from the script, unfortunately this never works, as Jean-Claude Van Damme has proved many times, great scenery does not make a great movie.I haven't read the book, the concepts of too many details and forgetting is a perfectly valid/interesting topic, unfortunately, this script dwindles on a ridiculous love story and the actors although trying have nothing to work with. Poor Roy, he was the worse served by this scrip/director, such good talent so wasted. Maybe he was just miscast? The editing and cinematography were amateur at best, strange decisions in "shaky camera" use and odd "travelings" just served to distract from non existent story. In such a relatively short film, 99 minutes, there should have been no time to waste on how to string together lamb chops, on a kid with a frog obsession, and endless shots of lakes and grass.Sad sad indeed, and possibly an embarrassment for the writer of the book.

This film was one of the absolute best acted, best directed and scripted of any I have yet watched.The film is not a tear jerker, except for the both dumb of heart and mind. It is a powerful story, that has roots in the very fabric of human history and the struggle for meaning in life.The existential struggles and scarred souls of three Nazi concentration camp survivors, meet after 35 years. Lessons are learned by all involved. The perhaps greatest lesson, is the need for the young to understand the life and circumstances their parents faced. And, ironically the inability of time to seem anything except indifferent to human suffering and existence itself. The past and its sufferings need give way to time's indiffernce. Live and love in the present. That is the crux of this fine drama.I do-not suggest this film for insensitive slobbery and obviously some here saw nothing in it. It is as if a great film was cast before them and all they saw was a boring pace and words and emotions they could never feel or associate themselves with.I have given this film a NINE. That for me is almost an impossible thing to do, if you review my reviews.Congratulations on a moving, intellectual and poignant cinema.

What an amazing cast this film has, an amazing cast, an amazing story, a beautiful setting and wonderful performances by every one of the actors (even the young boy). I am shocked that these actors in this good of a film and I hadn't heard a word about it until a good month before it came out on DVD, then imagine my surprise when it is a measly 5.6 on IMDb, what a joke that is. I can't say enough about his cast everyone plays their roles perfectly, the writing is fantastic, even going places and touching on subjects that other movies have been afraid to tackle. I'm not going to go into any details hoping that anyone that sees this film goes in cold turkey like I did knowing nothing about it, I think that made it even better for me. The location where this film was shot is beautiful, the film uses a recurring color scheme through out that really makes the audience not just see it but feel it as well. The same can be said for the style and camera work in the flashback scenes, scenes that are not over used and that could easily be the emotion of the film but wisely in my opinion the director doesn't go that route and leaves the emotion in the here and now. Summed up this film was easily my biggest surprise film of this year, which is my favorite kind of film, one that I expect nothing and am rewarded with some thing truly great. Because this film is from Canada I do believe and may be some kind of mad for TV movie or so I've heard, I'm not sure of it's Oscar eligibility but if it is for some reason not eligible or is snubbed by either it's release date or just plain stupidity it would be a shame.