| STRINGS |
 2004 – DenmarkDirector: Anders Rønnow-Klarlund
- Reviewed by Linda
It is not the plot that makes Strings stand out. The story is pretty standard stuff, a sort of Lord of the Rings-meets-Shakespeare epic tragedy. A corrupt king chooses to kill himself, hoping that his son Hal Tara (James McAvoy), the prince, will save the kingdom and give the royal family back its good name. But unfortunately for the king, his suicide note is intercepted by corrupt folks who want power within the kingdom, and Hal is led to believe that the king was murdered and must be avenged by seeking war against the neighboring country. On his journey, Hal discovers the truth about his own people, falls in love with a warrior princess (Catherine McCormack), and becomes a man worthy of uniting a kingdom. But, oh my goodness, the way that Strings is told is jaw-dropping. The opening shots let you see the hands of the puppeteers, but after that, the story is entirely immersed in the marionette's world. In a brilliant stroke, the fact that the characters are given "life" by the strings that hold them up is fully acknowledged and integrated into the story. Thusly, when a character's "head string" is cut or broken, they die, their head slumping forward without support. All made of wood, new characters are created by being whittled into form by their parents, then are "born" when their head string is attached. Prince Hal loses a hand in battle, then forces a serf to give up his own hand as a replacement in a surprisingly disturbing scene. When characters becomes old, their wooden bodies becomes dry and cracked. And when they die, their strings fall quietly from the sky into a heap around them. The natural old-age death of one character was depicted so gorgeously on screen that it actually made me choke up. "It's a freakin' PUPPET!!!" I had to remind myself as I wiped away a tear. The great look of the movie doesn't just end with the artistry of the master puppeteers. The cinematography and set design is also top notch. There is a dreary darkness to much of the kingdom, and it is often raining, which any film fan knows establishes a bleak mood like nothing else. It doesn't help the water-drenched aura that none of the buildings have roofs (the strings have to extend into the sky, see? brilliant!). The fact that the characters are puppets affects scenes in other ways. Lovers' strings become humorously entangled, and kids entwine themselves with their siblings to aggravate them. One character, as he gains power, starts to change his crippled damaged body by slowing adding new, improved body parts: strong legs, a large chest. Too bad for him he can't replace his head. The audience at the screening of Strings often laughed uncomfortably at some of the scenes. A puppet love scene is bizarre by any standard, and you could hear that some people weren't sold on the story as one character cried out (in the best death-scene cliché), "Nooooooo!!!!" while another character died in his arms. The plot is, admittedly, sometimes hard to follow, and keeping the characters straight can be a little tricky (with fantasy-land names like Ghrak, Zita, Nezo, and Kahro). And, I'll admit, even for someone as enthralled as I was, the story kind of dragged at parts. But note that I said "enthralled". I am admittedly a bit of a jaded film-goer, especially in the summer season of big-budget explosion movies. So, it is a delight to see filmmakers being crafty, daring to show audiences a world that is completely new. That's how I felt while watching Strings, wide-eyed and clutching the armrests of my theater seat. THIS was something new, I thought to myself. Heck, this movie Strings is freakin' cool. |
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I couldn't help but think of John Cusack's hapless puppeteer in Being John Malkovich as I watched Strings. If Cusack's Craig Schwartz got the recognition as an artist that he so richly craved, he would have been able to make an all-marionette "live-action" epic like Strings. This is not 