By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
Rating: 4 cats
Director: Sarah Watt
Starring: Anthony Hayes | Justine Clarke | William McInnes
Country: australia
Year: 2006
Running time: 100
IMDB: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0382806/
Michael says: “This Australian film has so much going for it; a great premise, terrific writing, strong acting, a strong visual style, and some neat experimental tricks that it’s a shame that first time feature director Sarah Watt relied so heavily on that difficult convention of pop songs playing while we check in on all the characters. Still, despite the heavy use of pop music as shorthand, LOOK BOTH WAYS is a powerful and inventive film that deserves a discerning audience. The theme of LOOK BOTH WAYS is death; and by extension, life. While Meryl and Nick seem preoccupied with death, visualizing their own deaths in every glance, their challenge is living. Meryl is a young woman whose father has recently died. She is the sole witness of the tragic death of a young man beneath the wheels of a freight train. Nick is a photographer covering the accident for the local paper, and he and Meryl share a brief conversation as they leave the scene. Nick’s haunting photograph of the victim’s girlfriend, arriving at the scene of the accident, sends powerful emotions roiling through all the characters of the film. Nick himself has just found out that he is suffering from testicular cancer that has traveled to his lungs. He is paralyzed with the realization that he is going to die so even as he and Meryl grow closer, he pulls away.
“While Meryl and Nick provide the core of the film, LOOK BOTH WAYS is nearly an ensemble piece with the other characters involved both directly and peripherally with the accident having their own story arcs develop as well. The story threads weave deftly through the main story, with each one finding emotional resonance at the film’s conclusion. Watt’s script and the performances convey the strong emotional extremely well, and the character montages focusing on their internal ruminations are lovely, but the liberal use of pop music was overdone. (There are five such musical montages… about three too many.) Justine Clark and William McInnes as Meryl and Nick are particularly appealing, and Watt fills her cast with a lovely diversity of physical types, avoiding the usual movie star glamour. 4 cats (despite the pop music)”
Bruce says: “Most of us, at one time or another, harbor morbid thoughts. Fortunately they come to us infrequently and are fleeting when they do. In LOOK BOTH WAYS Meryl (Justine Clarke) has constant fantasies which involve natural and manmade disasters and, more importantly, her mortality. Meryl’s daydreaming appears as artwork in her mind, not surprising because she is an illustrator by profession. Nick has fantasies of his own – he envisions cancer cells multiplying and metastasizing. His hallucinations are in the form of animated medical drawings, an extension of what he sees on the internet as he looks for his chances to overcome testicular cancer. Nick works as a news photographer and has just snapped a shot of a widow who has dropped a bag of groceries to embrace her dog. As the dog approaches, she becomes aware of the police, the reporters, the witnesses and the body the parameds are taking away, it doesn’t take her long to realize something horrible has happened to her husband. The primary witness to the tragedy – a man is hit by an oncoming train trying to protect his dog – is Meryl. Nick and Meryl meet at the scene of the accident, then bump into each other a couple more times before they begin talking and end up in bed. Meryl’s father has just died an she is not prepared to learn about cancer as an explanation for Nick’s
seemingly erratic behavior. Their relationship is getting off to a very bad start.
“While these two are the focus of LOOK BOTH WAYS, several other characters are featured in subplots related to the tragedy or to people connected to Meryl and Nick. The relationships are not always obvious to the viewer and one, in particular, is decidedly moving when the mystery unfolds.
“Sarah Watt has made over a dozen short films. LOOK BOTH WAYS is her first feature film and it is a strong debut. I agree with Michael that Watt’s use of folk-pop montages lessens the film considerably. It is a case of having material that is strong enough to stand quietly on its own without the over embellishment. LOOK BOTH WAYS is a beautiful statement about our mortality and the uses we make of our time before we die, particularly the time to love. 4 cats”