Old, New, Borrowed and Blue

I like Hollywood movies. Everything in them fits together so beautifully, works, bursts with humor, and is simply great. True, they somewhat reduce my self-confidence because their characters are usually more handsome, smarter, fight better, and have 100% accuracy when shooting, seduction comes naturally to them, and no woman can resist them. They bounce back from every blow, so my anxieties usually multiply after watching such films. If there is a counterpart to Hollywood, it would be movies in the style of the Dogma 95 manifesto. In those films the characters are obviously imperfect, they speak as if they have a beak, and everything is ordinary, full of little flaws and small embarrassments. The film's protagonist enters a hospital and her first encounter with a nurse ends with a monologue about patients' bedpans. The priest in the church tells his flock that he's tired of them and that they should go home because it's his church. Essentially every character has their quirks, yet the film has charm and with every passing minute, I felt a greater sense of belonging with its characters. A perfect embodiment of the concept of tragicomedy, where gentle humor meets human pain, and, at the same time, a perfectly unromanticized love relationship. Overall impression: 80%. (03/11/2009)