Color of a Brisk and Leaping Day (1996)

Simply Perfect

Overrated and overhyped

This film is so real. It treats its characters with so much care and sensitivity.

Through painfully honest and emotional moments, the movie becomes irresistibly relatable

I really wanted to like this movie. The visuals are spectacular and the filler shots of vintage Los Angeles are amazing. A lot of work and care went into crafting all of the visuals, from the scenery to props and the whole railroad itself. The story has some serious possibility, even being based on an actual railway (the Yosemite Valley RR did exist and ended operations in 1945 and an 18 yr old kid named John McFadden who worked at the Pacific Electric Railway DID try to save the RR). But, alas, that's where it ends. The acting was painfully flat and almost felt like a first reading of a script at a high school play. None of the characters were even very compelling, except the YVRR itself. There were a couple of throw away scenes that depicted the racism against Asians, but they could have easily landed on the cutting room floor with no loss to the movie. The soundtrack is appropriate, but the abysmal acting kills this movie. It breaks my heart to say it, but with just better acting and a slightly better script and you have a great love letter to railroading history.

I remember seeing this at the Toronto Film Festival in 1996, in the then still small Varsity 1 Cinema on Bay & Bloor (the teensy Varsity 1 was a great place to see a movie, being the place where I saw "Dawn of the Dead" for the first time, y'know, the censored version) - What can I say about "Color of a Brisk and Leaping Day" ? It is very dull, not unlike watching paint dry, or attempting to summarize Proust.I have no idea what the director Christopher Munch was getting at with this plodding, though beautifully photographed film; he has a knack for making very slowly-paced films, witness his first film, the fairly impressive "The Hours and the Times", which was about an imagined (though frequently rumoured) affair between Brian Epstein and John Lennon - That film is scarcely an hour long, but seems much longer."Color of a Brisk and Leaping Day" has something to do with trains, as far as I can recall (I fell asleep), and it's 87 minutes seem like an eternity; bonus points for an odd Micheal Stipe performance, where he seems to be channeling Andy Kaufman.

Film begin with quote taken from Matthew 13:46. "Who, When he had found one Pearl of Great Price, went and sold all that he had and brought it."Very moving railroadmania theme, particular with revolving familiar Los Angeles scene, ie. Los Angeles Passenger Union Terminal (LAPUT) name. Pacific Electric's downtown streetcar routes which aren't there anymore and maintenance shop is a rare interesting layout. Right theme and excellent scope on begone Southern Pacific Railroad (also owned Pacific Electric) exposing former corporate culture. Good job, I think, with historical restoration and award-winning 1996 Sundance Cinematography Award led me to wrongly believe that this film took place in 1950's, era which part of nationwide customary act to abandon railroad lines. Great film to watch those with an entrepreneurial mind with preservation cause.

Precious bitsy amateurish-sounding dialogue. Hipsterish appearances by Michael Stipe and Henry Gibson (warming up for his MAGNOLIA rocks glass.) A twee setting (railroads in Yosemite!) The earnest, clunky, not-quite-acting acting familiar from homely Sundance cinema. If you want the very definition of everything juiceless, pop-less and minor about the thing that is called "independent filmmaking," you've got it here. The director, Christopher Munch, exudes the personality of an annoyingly soft-spoken, painfully touchy college English major directing his first play and wishing the actors would just be QUIET AND HEAR WHAT HE HAS TO SAY!