Review of The Tracey Fragments (2007) by Outi I — 09 Mar 2010

3/5 Stars - Ellen Page carries the entire film, as you might expect, and I would also expect this to be one of her final R-Rated performances (this was made before 'Juno'), although I could be wrong.

The director chose to frame the ENTIRE movie in Mondrian-like split screens, which is supposed to be symbolic of her character's fractured psyche. I understand the technique idea, but it's way too jumbled and looks like he had as much fun as possible with Final Cut Pro instead of focusing on the story itself.

So, it comes off as a gimmick. You CAN still follow along with the film, however, and the story is quite dark and unfortunate. However, again, the choice to have multiple frames on screen at one time is a bit much, although I applaud the nine month editing job it took to do it.

I also have a soft spot for guerilla-financed, low budget films made with a single (in this case, a DVX100) camera. A good, yet jumbled effort.