November(2004)

Director: Greg Harrison

When I picked this dvd up from a local library, I didn't have much hope. I just thought of it to be another run of the mill Hollywoodish thriller. Boy! I was in for some surprise!

The film centers round Sophie, who is a professional photographer in LA. She lives together with her boyfriend Hugh and has a pretty normal life complete with the cheating on her boyfriend with some guy from work. But one evening something happens, something tragic. A held up, followed by a shoot-out in a corner store. And then the dream and the reality starts mixing up for Sophie.

The film is just over an hour long and is divided in three parts viz "denial", "despair" and "acceptance". The three parts are but different takes on the same incident, the shoot-out that takes place on a November evening. They start essentially with same sequence of shots, continue to tell us about the same evening, the same incident, the only difference being the music and the use of light and the way Sophie interprets the incidents. The "denial" part is the darkest of all where Sophie tries to deny the absolute facts in her life, facts that would dawn on the viewer at the very end. In the "despair" part, she sort of comes in terms with these facts but is ridden with pangs of grief. This part uses much brighter though a bit yellowish light to keep up with the theme. The last part, "acceptance", shows Sophie finally accepting the inevitable and seek salvation. This is obviously the brightest part and the background music is also vastly different from the other two.

I won't give out any more details of the plot. Those interested should really go forward and see this. This small independent film makes a statement as strong as any so called "classic". In fact it is a rare film that is both very intelligent and intriguing at the same time. Courtney Cox does a wonderful Sophie, James LeGros is a delight to watch as Hugh. This actually might be the best Hollywood film I have seen in quite a long time.

P.S: IMDB gives "November" 5.5 out of 10. When will they grow up?