Bokeh (2017) Reviews

• Out of focus.....

  s32761692017-03-26

  Bokeh is a Japanese term that describes out of focus points of light. Its an appropriate starting point, when discussing this film. Certainly, there is much about this film that's out of focus. It's message has a diffused quality that's difficult to pinpoint. Most specifically, its true message, as I understand it, is about the meaning of "existence". As the film unfolds, what it means to be alive clearly has different meanings, for the main characters. One see's the beauty and opportunity in their newfound "freedom", whilst the other simply feels constrained, isolated and oppressed by it. Indeed, as the only supporting character hints at, we are "one and one and one". The problem with this film is its so quiet and so subtle, that is, out of focus, that its very understandable, that its meaning may be overlooked.Personally I liked Bokeh but I can fully appreciate why others may not be so taken with it. What is remarkable, is the visual quality of this film. Its wide screen cinematic's are really quite breath taking when combined with Iceland's exceptional, rugged natural beauty. In this respect this film really is quite outstanding. All in all a mixed film that I personally believe, needed to offer a little more focus, to have broad appeal but is still an interesting watch nonetheless. Seven out of ten from me.

• one horrible boring lame excuse for a movie

  annyard19602017-10-18

  I must start this short review with a disclaimer. I love "end of the world" movies. I also love movies about "solitude", or take place in an environment of extreme "solitude". These kinds of movies automatically contain endless possibilities for interesting, fascinating situations and behavior. In this movie, two American tourists wake up one morning while on vacation in Iceland. They find no humans in their motel... or on the street... or in any of the shops... or on any roads. None. No dead bodies, just no humans anywhere. When they check the internet, they notice that no messages on forums or news stories exist after about 3:30am (their time). At this point, I'm rubbing my hands together because this kind of setup inherently has endless fabulous questions to answer and possibilities. What happened? Where did all the human bodies go? What will they decide to do? Stay in Iceland? Try to find a way to get back to north America? Do they go to a radio or TV station and broadcast a message (continuously on a loop) asking anyone remaining to call them? No. That would make sense (if they want to find other humans). All they do is wander around looking for other humans for a few days. Then they do a bit of relaxing and driving around (like on vacation). The couple are MORONS. But they are geniuses compared to the screenplay writers! Nothing happens in this movie. They just wander around and repeat endlessly "I don't know what to do". Almost at the end of the movie, when they go way out into the countryside to relax in a cabin on a lake, they encounter an old man who is still alive... barely. Why is he barely alive? Who knows. They imply he is dying of thirst, but... give us a break! His home is literally 30 feet from a fresh water lake (and certainly has his own water well, since he is far out in the countryside). So they give him some water. A few hours later, he dies. No reason is given, and in fact it is obvious that no reason exists for him to be sick or ready to die. There was zero point in finding him... except to make the conclusion of the story INFINITELY STUPID. Yes. The only real problem the couple has is... the girl is home sick. Never mind that nobody is alive back at home, so there is literally no point in going home anyway. So the ONLY significance of the old guy they found was... what? It was to show them that OTHER LIVING HUMANS PROBABLY EXIST SOMEWHERE. And so, what happens next? Does the girl get happy, excited, encouraged that other humans are alive and they can find them? NO. She kills herself because she is lonely! Just after they find that at least a few other humans exist in the world. STUPID. STUPID. STUPID. STUPID. STUPID. She and her boyfriend had a great life. Everything in the world, including all luxury, was theirs to enjoy. And they were in Iceland where geothermal will keep the electricity running without attention for hundreds of years. And even if that didn't work, there were thousands of generators and thousands of gas stations with fuel to power them all over the island. They had a great life... and she killed herself. Then... what does the boyfriend do? He just drives away with a glum look on his face while all the credits rolled. I mean... HOW STUPID. Sure, he should be sad his moron girlfriend offed herself. But... they can't just end the movie this way, right? After all, they just discovered there are more humans out there to find. So please... at least have a twilight zone ending of some kind, right? I mean, maybe he doses off at the wheel then wakes up in bed and finds it was all a dream. Yeah, very lame, but better than NOTHING. Or maybe all of a sudden all the other humans re-appear... maybe even driving on the road he is driving at the end. But no. The credits end... the movie ends... that's it. This really has to be one of the dumbest movies ever made. They could have done endless interesting, fascinating things with the setup in the first 15 minutes of the movie. But they did nothing. TERRIBLE. 1 out of 10 stars.

• post apocalypse without soul

  dustinbrisebois2017-03-24

  I understand the approach that was taken in this film, visually its beautiful. I understand how the characters evolve as they do and the direction that you are taken on. Unfortunately what happens is the obvious; the picturesqueness of the scenery becomes his focal point. He sees everything as a perfect picture and is unwilling to fight for survival. Her inability to deal with his blindness becomes her prison. Neither know how to really fight to survive, both give up before they discover they are really alone and what being alone really means. To be fair if I were trapped in Iceland and woke up one day the last person on Earth what would I do? I would get a boat and sail to Europe. I would drive to southern France or Italy and spend the rest of my days on the Mediterranean (or go who knows where else). To give up so easily and be carefree while doing it - its depressing and so anti- apocalyptic that its almost unforgivable. Depressing not in the sense that being alone is depressing - but depressing as the writer didn't have the sense on how much things mean anything in the end and that survival can be enough. If you are alone - and I mean THAT alone - your objectives should be EXTREMELY clear. You must get and maintain: shelter, supplies, and safety. To get sick is to die. To get hurt is to die. To go hungry, cold, trapped, or any other foreseeable thing means you are dead. Love to hate this - hate to love it.

• Postapocalyptic boredom

  Bohemian812017-03-24

  This is the invention of a new sub-genre: Postapocalyptic boredom. Why bother with a story if you can watch two completely uninteresting random people do completely uninteresting things for 1:30 hours. Sounds great doesn't it? Nothing happens in this movie. It is empty, pointless, boring and depressing. There is no plot. Only nothingness. Just two people doing nothing. Did i mention it was boring? Really really really boring. This is by far the best explanation of what to expect: Nothing is a concept denoting the absence of something, and is associated with nothingness. Nothing denotes things lacking importance, interest, value, relevance, or significance. Nothingness is the state of being nothing, the state of nonexistence of anything, or the property of having nothing. (quote from Wikipedia). The problem is that with (mostly) only two people on screen that you really know nothing about it is hard to care about anything happening to them. the main characters never really showed anything about themselves to get me emotionally involved. It all felt very shallow and flat. Sorry to say but throwing in some philosophy and giving it some artsy name doesn't make it art.

• Applause for the Tourism Bureau of Iceland

  imdb-942-2400642017-04-03

  I had such high hopes for this movie loved the thesis. I dragged my entire family into the playroom one Sunday night to watch this and my mistake was not reading the rating or the reviews beforehand. Suffice to say my movie cred has been dragged way down my making my family suffer through this. My views of this movie is well said by earlier reviewers with the title "Postapocalyptic boredom" and "post apocalypse without soul" , so won't repeat these reviews. My conclusion is that there was a fantastically creative person at the Iceland Tourism Bureau, who sponsored this, as the movie was just very bad but made me want to visit Iceland.