Review of Sidewalls (2011) by Ryan H — 02 May 2012

It's a shame that the film works less and less after an hour in. Gustavo Taretto just couldn't pull everything together in a coherent way. I really liked the idea behind Sidewalls. Two lonely people in a city that's changing and going out of control need to find each other and connect.

They supposedly have an automatic love without even knowing each other. I'm fine with that, as long as if it's obvious why they will love each other. The only thing I got was that they were both lonely.

Martin is a guy who hardly leaves his computer, and hear him talk about a girlfriend that left him for America and left her dog behind. He doesn't get dates with girls the normal way. The first one was by asking a dog walker to take his dog, then when he met her he just went with her and then they screwed a few times.

The other date was found on an online dating site. He explains (in one of my favorite parts about this film) that these dates always make him realize they are like McDonalds fast food: they look good on the menu but after you eat a Big Mac you leave feeling like crap.

So great! Then there is Mariana who has also just recently gotten out of a long term relationship. After 4 years she realized she didn't want to be alone with a stranger. She ends up using her mannequins to not feel so alone.

I did find the scene aggravating after she humped the mannequin the night before when she sits with it and tells it not to get too attached, it was just sex. Didn't seem like it was in her character to act that way.

She explains early on that she likes Where's Wally books and she even puts it on her music stand and uses a magnifying class to find him. This shows her desperation and searching. Good thing there.

And I liked her connecting with the psychiatrist at the pool, then things not working out in bed. But through all of these differences, they end up talking to each other online, which she wasn't comfortable with, but stays and talks to Martin.

That night the power cuts out, they both buy candles and run into each other, then the next day he's wearing a Where's Waldo outfit and she goes running after him, and the rest is the cute little "we're together and happy" stuff in the credits.

Why was that an instant love? And I also wish it had a closer connection with the title. Mariana describes sidewalls as being the parts of buildings that are useless. They get cracks over time, people graffiti on them, advertisements dull, and they are the sides no one wants to see but every building has them.

I never really caught that fitting in with them. This fits with everyday life and was an interesting concept, but it didn't fully connect with anything that was going on with the characters or the story.

Perhaps I was aggravated with the ending because I loved it so much when it started. I thought this was going to be a movie I was going to talk about to all of my friends. Unfortunately, if my friends ask me about this I will just say "meh, it's all right but nothing great.

" Great moments can't fix an unfocused film.