Review of The Time That Remains (2009) by Alejandro R — 26 Jan 2015

The visual style of this movie adds a rich texture to it. It's very visual dominated and it helps bring the absurdity to life in moving pictures without the need for much dialogue in many scenes. It's the antithesis of a Woody Allen film. When there is dialogue, it can be really funny as social and political satire.

"Girls, he's like her brother."  .

"It's a question of logic. All you need is a clear head and some thinking." .

"Who told you America are colonialists?" .

The silent observer of the changing times bearing witness to the absurdity of it all is a very interesting approach for film. There's the leftover turmoil of a conflict from the days of his father's fighting, which began before his birth and the modernization of these ancient cities. He's there as an inheritor to the current intermingling of these two seemingly opposing forces. .

His intentional stoic observation seems somewhat journalistic, but is not completely divorced of heart and direct experience, as it is obviously at least semi-autobiographical.  Then there's of course the satirical comedic side of the tale making it a rather quirky journey. .

The film seems to attempt to be experiential for the viewer in a kind of radical empiricism, which can leave so much room for us as observers to inject our own interpretation.

While I found it to be a good film, it should be warned that this is one of those moody flicks. It has an interesting visual style and really not heavy with dialogue, which can make it a different kind of stimulating journey, if you're in the mood for that sort of "artsy" approach to film.