Seeking Wellness: Suffering Through Four Movements Review
By David Kempler
Needless Suffering
According to the people behind "Seeking Wellness: Suffering Through Four Movements", it is a series of four vignettes exploring ideas related to victimization, recovery and empathy. Sure, and "
Avatar" is a small-budget independent film.
What it really is, is a very poorly-executed attempt to send a message of some sort. I'll accept their stated goal as what they were trying to accomplish because I can't come up with a more sensible explanation to the weirdness I witnessed. Weird is good if done well. Weird is bad and, even worse, extremely boring when not done well.
The first vignette is shot entirely through the security cameras of a combination, hospital/clinic/doctor's office. The camera's view shifts incessantly from rooms where victims lay bandaged to what must be a pharmacy room, even though it only contains a couple of pill cases on a shelf, to the reception desk. This goes on for a while with absolutely nothing happening. Finally, intruders enter and rape and murder the inhabitants. Why? I don't know and I don't care. I assume they are bad guys. I don't need to know the why but I need to be scared or revolted if you are going to attempt to cause me great discomfort. Making me bored was uncomfortable, but I don't think that was the goal of writer/director Daniel Schneidkraut.
The last vignette was even worse because it featured people who were not smart or deep trying to appear so, while giving presentations in a classroom setting. The only vignette that was mildly interesting featured a divorced father getting to spend "quality time" with his two young children during Christmas. Unfortunately, the acting of everyone aside from the father in this skit is beyond terrible. The same can be said for all of the acting throughout the vignettes.
Being different and arty and breaking new ground, are all admirable endeavors, but in the end, there has to be something of quality left to view. Else, you are left with only something to look at, deep in the hope that it will soon mercifully end. My suffering makes it five movements of suffering.
