A man we only know as 'The
Vagrant' is driving his beaten up wreck of a station wagon across North Dakota’s
frozen tundra he’s dressed head to toe in fur lined clothes that we can hardly
make out his face. He chances upon a broken down truck in the middle of nowhere
and its owner is lying unconscious in
the road. He loads up the stranger in his
station wagon and drives on continuing to listen to his dating self-help tapes
until NoDak the stranger comes round and tells his story of being on his way
to pick up his soon-to-be released-from-prison girlfriend who he has never actually
met.
The two odd mis-fit men share little
in common except their overwhelming desire to stop being bachelors and so they soon fall out and NoDak runs off and
eventually falls unconscious again. This time the Vagrant leaves him there to die and assumes his identity and heads off to the
Prison to pick up what will now be his girlfriend. The 'couple' have never exchanged anything more than
letters , most of which The Vagrant had liberated from NoDak so he could actually get
away with impersonating him.
The Girl is as wacky as he is
and so surprise surprise, the ‘big romance’ that they have both wanted too much
was doomed from the start, and when her suspicions were confirmed that this man was not her pen
pal who had courted her for the past three years, then the sticky end was inevitable.
This oddest of movies
premiered in Sundance 2011 in a section that the Festival call ‘NEXT’ which ‘is our speak for creativity that
transcends limitations’. I guess it infers the next generation of movies that
are pushing the boundaries, which I suppose this one does in its way. Trouble it is so totally quirky and absurd in
every minute detail it seems somehow to forget to reach us in any
positive way. I didn't hate it per se
but I did find the whole thing as unattractive as the three main characters themselves. I think this is one is for a taste that I have yet
to acquire ( and probably won't in all reality).
It did however make me want
to put North Dakota on my list of States never ever to visit! Its as bleak as hell : the rednecks are
welcome to it.
★★★
★★★
