360 (2012)

Absolutely Fantastic

It’s fine. It's literally the definition of a fine movie. You’ve seen it before, you know every beat and outcome before the characters even do. Only question is how much escapism you’re looking for.

The movie's neither hopeful in contrived ways, nor hopeless in different contrived ways. Somehow it manages to be wonderful

It's the kind of movie you'll want to see a second time with someone who hasn't seen it yet, to remember what it was like to watch it for the first time.

Movies linking different stories taking place all over the world are usually are praised for the interweaving plot coming together with some big revelation. Think about Babel, universally praised for mixing intercontinental tragedy. I liked it moderately, as it was a bit too gloomy, and I would not put it in my top-ten list.On the other hand, 360 working on a similar take, was vilified almost unanimously. On a different merry-go-round we have the stories of an English businessman ready to stray with a prostitute in Vienna, while his wife is already straying in London with a Brazilian guy, whose fiancée is dumping him for said infidelity and traveling back home, etc… Since the prostitute is having her photos taken by a photographer for her online advert, the movie starts and finishes with a girl entering the study, thus coming round 360 degrees. A couple of stories are quite weak, such as the Brazilian girl meeting a sex offender en route to Brazil and the prostitute's sister running away with a stranger. However, compared to Babel what is missing here is mega tragedy and that is exactly what made Babel so pretentious, with its existentialist grandeur.Therefore, I liked 360 better because its characters are more "normal" – except, perhaps, the Russian mobsters – and their lives are not experiencing huge calamities. They just change or adjust slightly. I guess that was not liked by the critics (and public). Nowadays, a level of extra-drama seems to be required in ever massive doses to relieve with excitement our numbed existences … at least for a couple of hours.

The idea of narrating different linked stories of characters is certainly not new and the material in this picture is quite abundant: a lot of complex characters, a lot of deep and tense backgrounds. The limit was that the director probably wanted to explore too many characters and too many situations, and the result is that no single story or character is sufficiently developed and seem to be more kept separate than interconnected. The idea that people's lives are connected comes out as banal and evident, as part of any person not living secluded at home, and the fact that in the picture the links go from Europe to the US to Brasil is simply because it deals with dynamic people who move across the world. Some story lines, such as Hopkins' search for his lost daughter could have been explored more deeply, on the contrary it remains faded like the other stories.Nothing to say against shooting, the use of split scenes is effective and tries to underline the idea of interconnections, and the subtle use of camera tries to make the characters' personalities come out, but in the end do not make up for a general underdevelopment. Nothing to say against the talented, but a little wasted cast, who give depth to the characters, although in the end we cannot but miss some more insight and deepening of both characters and stories.

The sisters Anna (Gabriela Marcinkova) and Mirka (Lucia Siposová) travel from the Bratislava, in Slovakia, to Vienna and the ambitious Mirka takes nude photos with the photographer and pimp Rocco (Johannes Krisch) and changes her name to Blanca to work as call girl. On the next day, she goes to a restaurant to meet the married British businessman Michael Daly (Jude Law) but he meets with acquaintances and does not contact Blanca. Soon he is blackmailed by the guy that forces Michael to close a business with him.In Paris, a Muslim follows a married woman and then he goes to his psychoanalyst and tells that he is infatuated. Later the woman, named Valentina (Dinara Drukarova) tells to her husband Sergei (Vladimir Vdovichenkov) that she wants to divorce him since she loves her boss. In London, Rose (Rachel Weisz) ends her love affair with the Brazilian photographer Rui (Juliano Cazarré) but they have sex for the last time. Rui is left by his girlfriend Laura (Maria Flor) that has discovered his affair and she travels back home. Laura meets a man named John (Anthony Hopkins) in the flight and she learns that he is looking for his missing daughter. Rose goes home and her husband Michael arrives from his business trip and they go to see "The Fiddler on the Roof" in their daughter's school.In Colorado, the sex offender Tyler (Ben Foster) will be released on probation after six years in prison. He meets Laura in the Denver airport and he resists her harassment. Their lives are entwined and life goes on."360" is not a bad movie and would be great if it were an independent production; but considering the director, the cast and the budget, it is but pointless and deceptive despite the fake reviews promoting this film.Maybe the best subplot is the story of the aspiring prostitute that ends with her dream coming true. The subplots of Michael and Rose; the Muslim guy and Valentina; and the Laura, John and Tyler could have been better developed. My vote is six.Title (Brazil): "360"

I love social movies, but unfortunately this one was Boring, slow and without any exciting twists in the story. Antony Hopkins' monologue at the AA meeting is the best part of the movie as far as I'm concerned , because you know he will never disappoint you, but other than that ,it really isn't a movie that will enrich you in some way, it is a waste of time really.I also disliked the music, it was poorly chosen and made the movie look even worse. All that made me skip quickly to the end because I wanted to stop watching it, that's how boring it was. I was disappointed because I thought that actors such as Jude Law and Hopkins would eventually offer some excitement in the movie,but mainly, it tells common stories of our daily lives, so..what else is new?