FRAGMENTS (a J!-ENT DVD Review)

July 17, 2009 by Dennis Amith 

“An all-star cast in an ensemble film.  With separate stories of five different individuals, a live film adaptation of the novel is challenging and difficult.  Director Rowan Woods was able to come up with a dark, provocative film but its not a film that is mean to tug at your heart but a film to show how people react to a tragic event quite differently.”

Images courtesy of © 2008 Winged Films, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

DVD TITLE: FRAGMENTS

DURATION: 96 Minutes

DVD INFORMATION: English, French 5.1 (Dolby Digital), Subtitles: English and French

COMPANY: Peace Arch Entertainment, Sony Pictures Home Entertainment

RATED: R (For Violent Content, Sexuality and Language)

RELEASE DATE:  August 4, 2009

Directed by Rowan Woods

Based on a story by Roy Freirich

Executive Producer: Gilbert Alloul, Naomi Despres, John Flock, Lewin Webb

Produced by Robert Salerno

Co-Produced by John J. Kelly

Music by Marcelo Zarvos

Director of Photography: Eric Alan Edwards

Editing by Meg Reticker

Casting by Nicole Abellera, Jeanne McCarthy

Production Design by Max Biscoe

Set Decoration by Maria Nay

Costume Design by Mary Claire Hannan

Starring:

Kate Beckinsale as Carla Davenport

Forest Whitaker as Charlie Archenault

Dakota Fanning as Anne Hagen

Guy Pearce as Dr. Bruce Laraby

Jeanne Tripplehorn as Doris Hagen

Josh Hutcherson as Jimmy Jaspersen

Jennifer Hudson as Kathy Archenault

Jackie Earle Haley – Bob Jaspersen

Robin Weigert as Lydia Jasperson

Embeth Davidtz as Joan Laraby

Hayley McFarland as Lori Carline

Tim Guinee as Aaron Hagen

Jacquie Barnbrook as Lori’s mom

One moment can change a lifetime. Shots ring out and the early morning tranquility of a diner shatters. As survivors pick up the pieces, they find themselves transforming in the most unexpected ways as they cope with the aftermath. One brief moment and their lives are changed forever.

Featuring an all-star cast including Kate Beckinsale, Dakota Fanning, Guy Pearce, and Academy Award® winners Forest Whitaker (Best Actor, The Last King of Scotland, 2006) and Jennifer Hudson (Best Supporting Actress, Dreamgirls, 2006).

In 2008, the novel “Winged Creatures” writted by Roy Freirich was released.  Not long after, the film was greenlighted for a live film adaptation and Director Rowan Woods (“Farscape” and “Little Fish”) would be the man to bring some life to the original story for the big screen.  Joining Woods is composer Marcelo Zarvos (“The Air I Breathe” and “The Good Shepherd”) and cinematographer Eric Alan Edwards (“Love Happens”, “The King of Texas” and “Knocked Up”).

Starring an all-star cast which includes Kate Beckinsale (“Van Helsing”, “Underworld” and “Vacancy”), Forest Whitaker (“The Last King of Scotland”, “Vantage Point” and “Street Kings”), Dakota Fanning (“War of the Worlds”, “Push” and “Man on Fire”), Guy Pearce (“Bedtime Stories”, “Traitor”, “Rules of Engagement” and “The Count of Monte Cristo”),  Josh Hutcherson (“Journey to the Center of the Earth”, “Bridge to Terabithia” and “Little Manhattan”),  Jennifer Hudson (“Sex and the City”and “Dreamgirls”), Jean Tripplehorn (“The Firm”, “Water World” and “The Trap”) and Jackie Earle Haley (“Watchmen”, “Breaking Away” and “The Bad News Bears”).

“FRAGMENTS” (known as “Winged Creatures” in other countries) is a film that has had its challenges.  Because of its not-so-happy storyline, the film had challenges with financing and only when all-star talent such as Kate Beckinsale, Forest Whitaker, Guy Pearce, Dakota Fanning and a few others were part of the film, then the film was able to obtain financing.  But unfortunately, after a test screening at the Los Angeles Film Festival, the film didn’t get massive distribution at theaters and very few people saw it.  In fact, there were posters that the film would be in theaters in July 2009 but for some reason, the film is being released in the US on DVD in August 2009.

With that being said, I have to emphasize that I doubt that its treatment was due to a bad film but because it’s a film that is more or less straight-forward and makes no attempt to captivate the hearts of the viewer.  This is not that type of film.  I’ll explain further during my “Judgment Call” at the end of this review.

The film revolves around a tragic incident.  During a normal day at a restaurant in Los Angeles, a man walks in and starts shooting.  A few people are dead, some injured and the gunman kills himself.  But its what happens afterward is what “FRAGMENTS” is about.  Post-Traumatic stress that the characters are suffering.  And each suffer in their own way.

Kate Beckinsale as Carla Davenport – The waitress at the diner.  Before the tragedy, she was a loving mother always trying to find out how her baby is doing.  After the tragedy, despite thinking she is fine, she is suffering post-traumatic situations in which she starts to neglect her toddler by not feeding him.  And uses the opportunity to bring her child to the doctor and see if she can get close to Dr. Bruce Laraby.

The Hagen Family:

Dakota Fanning as Anne Hagen – Anne is a teenager who hid under the table with her friend Jimmy while the gunman was shooting.  While her father was gunned down, she froze and the only thing that she watched was birds flying out the window.  She deals with her father’s death by treating him as a hero but in a way, uses religion and God to justify her emotions.  She seems strong-willed and like nothing has phased her.  She sees herself as a witness and that people should forgive the killer.  She is instrumental in helping another friend and grieving family through their ordeal.

Jean Tripplehorn as Doris Hagen – The mother of Anne who is concerned with her daughter.  Her daughter has become religious but is that to conceal her pain or has the murder of her husband brought Anne closer to God?

The Jasperson Family

Josh Hutcherson as Jimmy Jasperson – A close friend to Anne but has been affected deeply after the tragedy.  Jimmy was hiding under the table with Anne when her father was killed.  Since the incident,  Jimmy has stopped talking and his parents constantly fight of how to get Jimmy out of his shell. The hospital has been offering counseling but he refuses.  He harbords this deep pain that he doesn’t know how to let go.

Jackie Earle Haley as Bob Jasperson and Robert Weigurt as Lydia Jasperson – The parents of Jimmy who are constantly arguing and have their own way of dealing with Jimmy’s situation.  Jimmy’s father is against him receiving counseling because Jimmy’s brother, who is in the military, was wounded in battle in the Middle East.  When his brother came back, he was not the same and was in a state of depression.  The family reached out and got him counseling but in the end, their older son is now in the coma and Bob believes that counseling may hurt their youngest son.

The Archenault Family

Forest Whitaker as Charlie Archenault – Charlie is a man who believes in luck.  While eating at the diner, he is seen holding a pamphlet on cancer.  He was wounded during the diner tragedy and a doctor has told him he was lucky.  Charlie tries to deal with the tragedy in his own way and that is by gambling.

Jennifer Hudson as Kathy Archenault – The authorities are continuously questioning Kathy in regards to her father’s involvement in the shooting and want to speak to him.  She has no idea what’s going on and her father will not answer any of her calls.

The Laraby Family

Guy Pearce as Dr. Bruce Laraby – Dr. Laraby was actually in the diner the day of the shooting and opened the door for the gunman when he exited the diner.  He was the doctor who tried to save Anne Hagen’s father during surgery but was unable to.  Since that day, he has had bad luck with his patients and he has been affected by the tragedy, despite not being at the diner of the time of the tragedy.

Embeth Davidtz as Jan Laraby - The loving wife of Dr. Bruce Laraby – For some reason, she has been suffering from some type of illness and not knowing why she is feeling this way.

The film divides itself into these five different ensemble stories of how each character have lived their life not long after the tragic incident.   There is no straying away from that plot, we literally see how these individuals are brought to their lowest of lows and how, if they can, recover from it.

VIDEO & AUDIO:

“FRAGMENTS” is featured in Anamorphic Widescreen (1:85:1).  For the most part, the picture quality on DVD is good, as many parts of the film are shot outdoors and you are able to get some vibrancy with the colors.

Audi is featured in English and French 5.1 (Dolby Digital).  The film is primarily a dialogue-driven film in which the majority of the audio comes from the front and center channels.  Although, the gunshots from the tragic incident is probably where you will hear most of the punch throughout the soundtrack.  Because the tragedy is replayed many times in different situations, the gunshots are heard throughout the film and you can hear it clearly through the front channels and some usage from the surrounds.  But for the most part, it is a dialogue-driven film and you can hear the talent quite clearly.

Subtitles are featured in English and French.

SPECIAL FEATURES:

There is one special feature included on the DVD and that is an audio commentary by Director Rowan Woods.  Woods is upfront about the challenges of funding of the film, why it was shot in Los Angeles, working with the various talents in the film, challenges of making an ensemble film but most importantly is his feelings of why audiences may have not gravitated towards the film.

Many people have many questions of why the film didn’t receive that much attention, especially since it has an all-star cast and the DVD commentary by Rowan Woods will help answer that.

“FRAGMENTS” is a film that will be compared to other ensemble films such as “CRASH” and “BABEL”.  It can also be compared to the television series “The Nine” which has a similarity to this film but the main difference is that “The Nine” revovles around a bank heist and the victims end up becoming close friends and become their own support group, as they also deal with their own post-traumatic stress.  There is also a mystery element that grabs the attention of the viewer.

With “FRAGMENTS”, there is no mystery, there is no support group.  It’s straightforward in showing us that these people who do not want to get professional help have been mentally scarred by these events.  The film doesn’t make one appreciative of the characters either.

Maybe with the exception of Dakota Fanning and Josh Hutcherson’s characters (which the two are more or less the primary characters and have a big reveal at the end), the other characters are just not likable. It’s one thing for the viewer to understand that these characters are suffering from post-traumatic stress but how they deal with it is quite shocking.

The actions that Carla Davenport (Beckinsale) goes through by neglecting her son while trying to get attention is just going to upset people who will no doubt be upset of how bad of a mother she becomes and the neglect she has towards her own baby.

Dr. Bruce Laraby (Pearce) and what he does to his wife in order to makeup his inner ego of losing patients is also going to upset people.

And Forest Whitaker’s role as Charlie Archenault is not going to have viewers feel happy as he tries to gamble his life away and in the process, hurting himself even further.

With an ensemble film, there is some sort of mystery, some sort of storyline that can either captivate your attention, “FRAGMENTS” keeps you watching throughout the end to find out, what really transpired on that fateful day and after seeing the characters being put through hell, you find yourself asking the question, “is that it?”.

And that leads to the question of, how much of “Winged Creatures” made it into the final cut of “FRAGMENTS”.  Perhaps it was too ambitious to take the novel and give it a proper film adaptation because perhaps, there was a lot of storyline that needed to be cut out.  Granted, this film could have been even more tragic than it was, and I’m glad it wasn’t.

For the most parts, we do get a solid performance from Beckinsale who shows that she can portray a variety of characters quite well.  Dakota Fanning is a talented actress and is able to deliver emotion in a variety of levels (like she has done while she was younger). Josh Hutcherson is definitely put into a more emotional role than his previous films but overall, the kid definitely has talent and provides a balance with Fanning’s character.

Forest Whitaker is more or less a loss soul and you wonder if this character was going to snap but in the end, his fix for dealing with his problems is through intense gambling.  Guy Pearce started off strong but its his character that is indirectly such a sleazeball, that you just can’t believe how far he would go in order to boost his inner machismo.  Academy Award winning actress and singer Jennifer Hudson has a short role that it didn’t make much of a difference to the overall story.

Supporting characters such as Jeanne Tripplehorn as Anne’s mother and Jackie Earle Haley was great to see both on the big screen.  Especially, Haley for those of us who grew up seeing this actor when he was a child star through the late 70′s and 80′s.

If anything, the positive of the film is that it was an interesting film that focuses not on any conspiracy or mystery, it’s a look of how people deal with tragedy differently.

“FRAGMENTS” is  a deep and somewhat depressing, provocative film and in the end, I enjoyed it for its take on characters dealing with post-traumatic stress.  Again, no conspiracy, no mystery.  It’s a straightforward story of characters near their breaking point.

I wish there were more special features included on the DVD but the commentary was definitely interesting in hearing Director Rowan Woods discuss his overall feeling about the film.

For the most part, “FRAGMENTS” may grab your attention but it’s simply not a film that I can find myself watching it repetitively.