Review of 360 (2012) by Maksim B — 21 Mar 2013

Meaningless and quite superficial, 360 is one of the latest dramas in which the storyline is driven by people interconnect by chance or single unexpected situation. Unlike the classics of this drama sub-genre, this movie is chaotic, generic, with no message, moral dilemma or anything to actually keep the audience attention after the initial introduction. Given the cast and its proven abilities, 360 is a disappointment in terms of a story.

The movie is mostly set in Europe and partially in the US. The beginning is, in fact, promising as the Eastern European reality ensures a compelling start of the movie, but after the opening scenes in Slovakia and Austria, the movie jumps unstoppably between Paris, London, Denver, Phoenix and again Vienna. Each character is shown with his/her own dreams, desires, disappointments and hopes. If it seems somehow easy to memorize Hollywood A-stars such as Jude Law, Anthony Hopkins and Rachel Weisz, it is really challenging to keep track on every character in the movie. With 11 persons involved in director Fernando Meirelles' interconnecting story, the movie becomes totally unfocused and it gets impossible to develop any emotional connection to the story and its characters.

The lack of any emotional load, of any compelling content is actually the biggest disappointment from 360. Even if the expectations from the creator of The Constant Gardener have been a bit high, Meirelles latest delivery fails to satisfy. It completely looses itself in an unnecessary and endless stretching of the connections between the characters and it nears the level of becoming boring.

In conclusion, 360 is disappointingly unfocused and given the amount of wasted acting talent I would call it: painfully disappointing. It is a pale attempt to imitate classics such as Paul Haggis' Crash and it does nothing but to frustrate with its inability to fully show its hidden potential.