Movie #277 White Material *2009*

I'm not sure if this is the first female director that I have blogged about, but it seems to be a rare thing.  That is unfortunate.  In White Material Claire Denis tells the tale of a coffee plantation owner and her failing farm in Africa.  To complicate things there is a civil war going on and she seems to be on the loosing side.  Then to top things off she has a lazy son that goes insane and begins fighting for the winning side.

This is a film that is slow paced and mainly shot with a hand held aesthetic.  The story reigns supreme.  But it can be a slightly impenetrable yarn at times.  I enjoyed that fact that it jumps around in time a little, but not to much.  It causes the viewer to constantly remember what has happened.  Both in the past, and what you have seen that is going to happen in the future.  That is an extremely difficult trick to pull off.

The thing that I didn't like about this movie is the son plot line.  It seems unnecessary and not nearly as well thought out as the rest of what was happening.  Not enough time was devoted to him in order for me to believe that he would make such a radical change.  Plus, I found the actor sort of annoying. 

This is a small cast with what I would guess is a lot of non actors filling roles as soldiers.  Even with a slow story and such a small cast the writer and director was able to pull off an almost epic in scale story.  I enjoyed White Material quite a bit.  I suppose I should mention that the film is in French.  I give the film ★★★1/2.