Review of Day Night Day Night (2006) by Gavin S — 01 Nov 2007

Potential is a terrible thing to waste. This film is a perfect example. The film follows a young woman as she prepares to become a suicide bomber in the center of Times Square. The film does an admirable job of making this girl very neutral--we have no idea what her background, ethinicity, or true motives are.

Unfortunately this ends up serving to make the audience try to guess the who, what, and why. However, if that were the only problem with this film it would still be a pretty good film. However, this film tries for a cinema verite feel.

This means that the film has many shots that go on for far too long, with nothing of note occuring. It also means that there are several scenes where the video is completely washed out. The acting is not too bad, except that our protagonist the nameless suicide bomber speaks in a subdued, quiet little girl voice.

Perhaps this is to disguise any accent she might have, but it gets old pretty fast. The worst part of the film, however, is that it does not follow through with its own premise. Not only does this film go out without a whimper instead of a bang, it does not even resolve itself.

It seems as if the filmmakers did not know what sort of film they were trying to make. Most of the film plays like a serious, dramatic exploration of its subject matter. Yet several scenes seem to be played as a sort of satire--witness the darkly comic scene of the suicide bomber and her cohorts preparing to film her pre-bombing "statement" video.

This film had so much potential to be gripping and powerful. Instead, it's just a disappointment and not nearly compelling enough.