Excellent but underrated film

This is a coming of age storyline that you've seen in one form or another for decades. It takes a truly unique voice to make yet another one worth watching.

It’s not bad or unwatchable but despite the amplitude of the spectacle, the end result is underwhelming.

There are moments in this movie where the great movie it could've been peek out... They're fleeting, here, but they're worth savoring, and they happen often enough to make it worth your while.

Appearing in the sky for eleven minutes, a mysterious object has a significant impact on those who sight it in this offbeat drama from Jerzy Skolimowski. Best known as the director of 'Deep End', 'The Shout' and more recently 'Essential Killing', Skolimowski is a filmmaker who excels with unconventional narratives, a description that describes this film in spades. The movie consists of the same eleven minutes played out (a cataclysmic concluding event aside) from all different angles. The film has at least a dozen main characters and as the narrative constantly jumps around, never following one character for more than five minutes at a time, it becomes a tad hard to follow. It is also a movie in which it is difficult to become attached to any of the characters since none of them are fleshed out in depth, give or take a jealous husband and a hotdog vendor with a mysterious checkered past. Fortunately, the symbolism alone is sufficiently interesting; we never see what exactly the object in the sky is, nor do we need to as it represents fate. The film also opens innovatively, with footage from a smartphone camera, from a laptop camera and CCTV security camera all thrown our way before Skolimowski gives us 2.35:1 aspect ratio conventional film footage - for some reason that no doubt links to the mysterious sky object. With so much left deliberately unclear, this is a tricky film to recommend. It is thought-provoking though, if perhaps not as satisfying as earlier Skolimowski efforts such as 'King, Queen, Knave' and 'The Lightship' with Robert Duvall.

The Polish film 11 minut was shown in the U.S. with the translated title 11 Minutes (2015). Jerzy Skolimowski was the writer and director.This should have been a perfect film evening. 11 Minutes was the opening film of Rochester's Polish Film Festival. Jerzy Skolimowski is one of the greatest writers and directors in Polish film history. 11 Minutes was shown in the superb Dryden Theatre at The George Eastman Museum. The Deputy Consul of the Polish consulate in NYC traveled to Rochester for the event, and gave a welcoming speech using impeccable English. The Director of Programming at the George Eastman Museum gave a learned introduction. The only problem is that 11 Minutes is a truly bad film. In theory, at least, the film portrays 11 minutes in Warsaw through the eyes of countless participants.The only three characters with names are the sleazy film director Richard Martin (Richard Dormer), the beautiful aspiring actor Anna Hellman (Paulina Chapko), and the dog owned by "Girl with a Dog" (Bufo, played by Bufo.) Incidentally, Bufo did a fine job in his role.) All the other characters had names like, "Husband of Courier's Lover."This film may have worked for some people, but it didn't work for me. Scenes popped up on the screen and disappeared. What happened to the drug courier? Why had Anna's husband been arrested,and why did Girl with a Dog tell the hot-dog vendor that she was surprised to see him out of jail? Why do the nuns want mayonnaise in addition to mustard on their hot-dogs?If you are looking for a way to spend 81 unpleasant minutes, this is the movie for you. If you want an excellent 94 minutes of movies, then rent, buy, or stream Knife in the Water. (It was co-written by Jerzy Skolimowski.)11 Minutes carries a terrible 5.8 IMDb rating. My mistake was not to trust my fellow reviewers. Live and learn.

Polish/Irish co-production 'Eleven Minutes' follows several characters over the course of eleven minutes in their lives - and straight away we run slap-bang into the film's main problem. Most eleven-minute segments of people's lives are mundane and dull, and so, for some of the characters, is the case here: the woman walking her dog; the couple watching pornography in an illicitly-occupied hotel room. But by contrast, other characters pack an awful lot into their allotted time: the teenager who gets ignored by his mother, robs a pawnshop and finds a dead body inside; or the motorcycle courier who escapes from his lover's husband, gets involved in a police chase, trips out and then goes to meet his father - all this in just eleven minutes? Really?Also not helping is director Jerzy Skolimowski's decision to intercut between the characters, which gives an impression of more time passing in the story than is actually the case. Exclusively following one character to the end of his/her story, then another, then another, might have given a greater feeling of urgency. And the way the different characters' stories come together at the end is either skillfully done, or utterly contrived, depending on what mood the viewer is in at the time!Skolimowski's career goes back to the sixties. To say this film sees him coasting on his reputation would be cruel, but I can't help wondering if the London Film Festival luminary who introduced it would have been quite so gushing had the director been a first-timer.

Nothing happens believe me. Don't waste your time or money. No plot, no middle no ending. This movie has nothing of value. 90 minutes of randomness. Wish it were 11 Minutes long. This is one of the main reasons I stay away from the movie theater because of garbage like this. No commercial value, no artistic value just some random thoughts and scenes that make no sense, rhyme or reason. I guess this is what they like in Poland but I am sure no where else will like it. Who ever is responsible for making the picture should maybe find another job. After it was over the director was so uninterested in discussing his mess of a film with the audience he couldn't wait to catch a ride to the airport. As Jed Clampit would say... Pitiful.