Review of Drowning by Numbers (1988) by Sofia B — 31 Oct 2009

I always love to meet people who are honest with themselves and with others. The characters in this flick are brutally honest in content, but nearly whimsical in delivery. When Madgett, lying on his bed with the covers pulled over his head asks of the eldest Cissie's husband Jake, "What happened?" she very plainly says, "I drowned him in his bath," and the middle Cissie says, "You should see it, it looks very natural!" Madgett screams, "Oh no! Oh God!".

I felt that the most captivating character and performance was Jason Edwards as Smut. He seems so naive while he's playing his games or counting things (leaves on a tree, etc.) but his profound respect to memorialize lost life came across as completely sincere and quite moving, right up to the climax which is sure to stick with you for some time. Finding the numbers 1-100 throughout the film is a sort of amusing pleasure on a first viewing, but each subsequent time I've sat down to see this, the increasing numbers make me wince a bit.

This is just a matter of opinion, but I preferred "A Zed and Two Noughts" and "The Cook, the Thief, his Wife and her Lover" by Peter Greenaway. That is not to say that they were "better" movies, just movies that appealed to my taste more. On mentioning those, I will say that I love that Greenaway uses similar scores by Michael Nyman. Personally, I feel that "The Cook, the Thief..." has one of the best soundtracks I've ever heard, mostly due to the timing and particularly the dishwashing boy singing the "Wash me, cleanse me" song...I suppose that's for another review...