Review of The Tracey Fragments (2007) by Mo R — 23 May 2010

One thing about Canadian film-maker Bruce McDonald: he's not one to deal in conventions. This is the guy who had his debut with the schizophrenically plotted "Roadkill", recently turned in the revisionist zombie-flick-without-zombies "Pontypool" and the warts-and-all punk documentary "Hard Core Logo".

Now he gives us a very challenging film which some critics may just write off as novel exercise in editing style. I think there's a lot more running underneath the surface, and though flawed, it's one of the more visually exciting and well acted ventures I've seen recently.

Hali-homegirl Ellen Page plays Tracey Berkowitz, who we first see in the back of a Winnipeg city bus clad only in a shower curtain as a rumored blizzard approaches. She's looking for her little brother Sonny, who's convinced he's a dog and has run away from home.

Through the clever use of flashbacks and split-screens we follow Tracey as she ventures into the dark heart of the city, suffers terrible abuse at the hands of bullies in school, tries to extricate herself from a poisonous life at home, avoid an insanity stamp from her bloodless therapist and crushes hardcore on nominal "rock star" Billy Zero.

Pretty soon her earnest account of what's going on begins to blend in with pure fantasy and what actually happened. It's very engaging trying to piece together what is what. Directors such as Brian de Palma flirted quite a bit with split screen in his body of work but Bruce McDonald takes this tool to extremes to serve the film thematically.

Tracey's shattered mental state is well represented by sometimes dozens of frames moving in one shot, varying the technique scene by scene in order to underscore something he wants his audience to pick up on.

This also creates a unique dimension where you, as the viewer, can chose what image to focus on at any given time and thereby control you're own unique viewing of the film. The performances are also uniformly solid.

Even though she's moving through a difficult character, Ellen Page exudes tremendous on-screen charisma and we can't help but root for her as Maureen Medved's script fro he rown novel pull her through knothole of misery.

Enigmatically named Slim Twig is great as Tracey's stoic, fantasy boyfriend and his betrayal of Tracey's trust is heart-rending. Ari Cohen and Ellen McMurtry are perfect as Tracey's mother and father, who seem completely ill-equipped to handle any sort of parental hurdles.

British character actor and frequent McDonald co-conspirator Julian Richings also has a memorable turn as a Tracey's female (!) shrink. Also, since it is a Bruce McDonald film, mentioning the soundtrack is a virtual given.

The music by Broken Social Scene is tonally spot-on. I know in recommending this film I'm taking a risk. Some people may read this, see it and think it boring, depressing or pointless. But I maintain that for someone who's opinion comes from experience seeing many films, this is some brave and original work.

Some people may take issue to the lack of structured plotting, but it's been my experience that real life isn't mapped out neatly like beats in a Hollywood screenplay. And honestly, I love the ethereal end of the film with the tracking shot following the shower-curtain clad Tracey as she makes her way through a park as the first flakes of the storm begin to fall.

The really odd thing is that clues in Page's nuanced performance (as well as seeing one single unified image for the first time ever) leads us to believe that somehow, she's going to be alright.

I loved this movie and wouldn't mind experiencing it again, which in my world is pretty high testimony. Tilt: up.