No Such Thing (Widescreen)

This is a Hal Hartley film though, and it doesn't get judged by any normal standard. Fact is, after 'Unbelievable Truth', 'Trust', 'Simple Men', 'Amateur', 'Book of Life', and 'Henry Fool', a Hal Hartley movie is expected to offer breathtaking, unbelievably distilled plot, dialog and wit, hilariously deadpan philosophizing and commentary, and characters that snap to your attention with their uncompromising honesty, honor, and relevance. And compared with Hartley's masterpieces, 'No Such Thing' just doesn't deliver. Having a reasonable budget and a truly professional crew for the first time let Hartley make his movie efficiently, but the late-night beer-and-honing sessions that were part of how the earlier movies achieved their brilliance never happened here. This movie got made from his rough draft, smoothly and professionally and just as it was, and before he could even do anything about it. Buy the other films first, this is for fans only.

beatrice: if that's true, then i think you should be brought to justice and pay for the crimes you committed.

monster: justice?

beatrice: yeah, two wrongs don't make a right. it's like my mom always used to say, "jesus had it all right and proper. you've got to learn to love your enemies too."

monster: jesus? alright, i can already see this is going to be a disaster.

hal hartley's monster is changeless and eternal. he's the thing we always run from for fear of a meaningless existence. he's meaning personified. but the monster (burke) now lives in seclusion. his purpose waning in a consumer-crazed planet. an outcast even to his own creators, tossed aside, exchanged for the wonderful vices of the world. and each day carries the possibility of another. yesterday's is recycled and a week later is again on the front page. all is well and progressive without evil. meanwhile, the monster remains dormant in a cave in offshore iceland, drunken and depressed, worse each day, without even the comfort of suicide, denied. until one day, a corporate media investigator shows up at the entrance of the cave to discover the whereabouts of a team of reporters destined to get the story on the monster, whom the monster without hesitation or remorse dispatched (even bored to tears while doing so). the reporter beatrice (polley) discovers the bleak situation offering her natural kindness and sympathy to which the monster replies: "I HATE THAT PITY SH**!" but they end up striking a bargain; the monster in one more media run in exchange for his termination.

sarah polley whom i last saw in the claim is a sisyphus-like angel who makes little notes of the media-induced chaos surrounding her every move. that's life, and it's kinda funny but ultimately bleak which the monster reminds polley and the world within every frame of his performance. burke and polley are both great, the monster is often hilarious but never sentimental. polley is the mother, whether of man or the earth, but one understands she's only visiting in a timeless and eternal sorta way. and although they may appear polar opposites, the message both the monster and beatrice carry are one in the same, bonded together by the same realization of mortality, absurdity. the music is goofy and melancholic but truly innovative, as is this thinking person's film.