Wonderful character development!

Sadly Over-hyped

Great Film overall

One of the worst ways to make a cult movie is to set out to make a cult movie.

it is that film who seems be perfect. not great but giving the right story, the good performances, the correct message, the admirable atmosphere. it is the wise style illustration to exam the past. to exam, at the fair measure, experiences, pains, errors. and the importance of friendship. it is not a remarkable film but one who gives the essence of the relation between old friends and the geography of this long time friendship. a film about the status of the other in your life. simple. honest. and seductive. a film about the truth behind the death. and about the pottery of the past. so, just beautiful. and, maybe, useful.

A group of survivors from a French based concentration camp in WWII gather for a weekend at a country home in Quebec, more than 30 years after the war. Most critics either praised this to the skies, calling it as powerful as Bergman. or they damned it for being slow, too familiar, sappy and not special. I lean more towards the positive. First of all this is a wonderful bunch of older actors (Max Von Sydow, Susan Sarandon, Gabriel Byrne, Christopher Plummer) and, as one would expect, they each bring a lot to their roles. It is also beautifully photographed.If not quite Bergman, I do buy it as 'Bergman-lite'; the same sense of the confusing complexities of the human heart, and the way earlier damage always comes back to haunt us. Yes it has a few over-the-top moments, and it ultimately didn't pack quite the punch I expected, but I was never bored, despite the deliberate pace, and found each of these lost souls quite compelling.

I have no doubt the novel this script is based on is great, and the actors do try hard, unfortunately, the director just completely misses the mark, possibly due to an incredibly bad script????? Anytime a movie spends so much time percentage on scenery, it's usually because it's trying to impose some emotion missing from the script, unfortunately this never works, as Jean-Claude Van Damme has proved many times, great scenery does not make a great movie.I haven't read the book, the concepts of too many details and forgetting is a perfectly valid/interesting topic, unfortunately, this script dwindles on a ridiculous love story and the actors although trying have nothing to work with. Poor Roy, he was the worse served by this scrip/director, such good talent so wasted. Maybe he was just miscast? The editing and cinematography were amateur at best, strange decisions in "shaky camera" use and odd "travelings" just served to distract from non existent story. In such a relatively short film, 99 minutes, there should have been no time to waste on how to string together lamb chops, on a kid with a frog obsession, and endless shots of lakes and grass.Sad sad indeed, and possibly an embarrassment for the writer of the book.

It is fascinating how the horrors of World War II continue to spark off good, intelligent cinema around the world even after a gap of over half a century. "Emotional Arithmetic" based on a novel by Matt Cohen (a Jew?), begins with an astounding remark "If you ask me if I believe in God, I am forced to answer does God believe in us?" The film is not about atheism. It reflects on the terrible scars left by war on orphans, on individuals who stand up and protest when wrong is done, on relationships forged in times of stress, pain and loss.The charm of Paolo Barzman's film rests considerably in the hands of the capable actors—-Susan Sarandon, Max von Sydow, Chistopher Plummer and Gabriel Bryne—-all who have a maturity to carry off their parts in the film with grace. Ms Sarandon has matured into a formidable actress in recent films and this one showcases her talent.Screened at the 12th International Film Festival of Kerala, India, the film forced this viewer to compare the contents of "Emotional Arithmetic" with those of a Swiss documentary "A Song for Argyris" also shown at the festival. Both films underlined the difficulties in forgetting tragic events in our lives and moving on. Both films indirectly discuss the bonding of survivors of tragic events. As I watched the film I could not help but note the growing interest filmmakers in family bonds—in "Emotional Arithmetic" it is merely a subplot balancing a "virtual" family that suffered during the Nazi rule with that of a real family comprising three generations living in idyllic conditions in Canada.This film would offer considerable material to reflect on for the viewer, beyond the actual events shown on the screen.Though there is no mention of a divine presence, the use of the vertical crane shots of the dining table and the car at interesting junctures in the film seem to suggest this debatable interpretation. This Canadian film provides eye-candy locations that grab your attention from the opening shot. Mesmerizing crane shots are part of the film that provide an unusual charm to the high technical quality of the film, which becomes all the more apparent on the large cinemascope screen. So is the competent editing of the sequences that make the viewing process delectable. Like another Canadian film "Away from her" shown at the 11th edition of the festival, Canadian cinema has proved capable of dealing with serious subjects with the help of international actors, without resorting to the commercial gimmicks of mainstream American cinema, and employing high standards of craftsmanship in the true tradition of the famous Canadian filmmaker Claude Jutra!