2008 Woodie Awards
Movie Review: 'The Guatemalan Handshake'
Quirky film lacks depth
By: Erin Duley
Issue date: 4/19/07 Section: Review
2.5 out of 5 stars
With "The Guatemalan Handshake," Todd Rohal set out to make an art film that would befuddle the average moviegoer with its meticulously random quirkiness and thematic depth. Turns out, beneath the layers of zaniness, "The Guatemalan Handshake" is just a mildly uplifting story about a town full of forgettable people.
The film begins with an accident at a power plant close to an anonymous town that causes the electricity to sporadically flicker on and off in people's homes throughout the rest of the movie. This introduction reveals the town is a little screwy, which is confirmed when its residents are unveiled. A 10-year-old girl named Turkeylegs (Katy Haywood) is the narrator and most "normal" character, despite the fact that she spends her summers at a Boy Scout-like camp where she comes and goes as she pleases.
When Turkeylegs' best friend Donald (Will Oldham) disappears on the same day as the power plant fiasco, she single-handedly sets out to find him. All of the other characters have similarly direct goals: Ethel Firecracker (Kathleen Kennedy) wants to find her lost dog, Donald's pregnant girlfriend Sadie (Sheila Scullin) wants to drive in the demolition derby, Mr. Turnupseed (Ken Byrnes) wants to reunite with his tiny, trapezoidal car. Besides some occasional flashbacks of Donald, the film follows the characters' respective quests in a straightforward narrative.
The film's plot is not challenging. Shot in rural Pennsylvania, the town depicted stands in for any Midwestern burg and offers a distorted view of everyday society. Familiarity exists in the tacky bug zappers and rundown skating rinks that run rampant in mid-America, but it's the obsessively focused characters that are meant to be thought-provoking by merit of their eccentricities.
However, in a town where everyone's a freakish loser, is anyone really "eccentric?" Perhaps that's the point, but Rohal has filled his town with Napoleon Dynamites who are so genuinely awkward it seems redundant to laugh at them. Some funny moments do arise, but it's hard to be amused throughout the film without feeling it's an act of cruelty.
With "The Guatemalan Handshake," Todd Rohal set out to make an art film that would befuddle the average moviegoer with its meticulously random quirkiness and thematic depth. Turns out, beneath the layers of zaniness, "The Guatemalan Handshake" is just a mildly uplifting story about a town full of forgettable people.
The film begins with an accident at a power plant close to an anonymous town that causes the electricity to sporadically flicker on and off in people's homes throughout the rest of the movie. This introduction reveals the town is a little screwy, which is confirmed when its residents are unveiled. A 10-year-old girl named Turkeylegs (Katy Haywood) is the narrator and most "normal" character, despite the fact that she spends her summers at a Boy Scout-like camp where she comes and goes as she pleases.
When Turkeylegs' best friend Donald (Will Oldham) disappears on the same day as the power plant fiasco, she single-handedly sets out to find him. All of the other characters have similarly direct goals: Ethel Firecracker (Kathleen Kennedy) wants to find her lost dog, Donald's pregnant girlfriend Sadie (Sheila Scullin) wants to drive in the demolition derby, Mr. Turnupseed (Ken Byrnes) wants to reunite with his tiny, trapezoidal car. Besides some occasional flashbacks of Donald, the film follows the characters' respective quests in a straightforward narrative.
The film's plot is not challenging. Shot in rural Pennsylvania, the town depicted stands in for any Midwestern burg and offers a distorted view of everyday society. Familiarity exists in the tacky bug zappers and rundown skating rinks that run rampant in mid-America, but it's the obsessively focused characters that are meant to be thought-provoking by merit of their eccentricities.
However, in a town where everyone's a freakish loser, is anyone really "eccentric?" Perhaps that's the point, but Rohal has filled his town with Napoleon Dynamites who are so genuinely awkward it seems redundant to laugh at them. Some funny moments do arise, but it's hard to be amused throughout the film without feeling it's an act of cruelty.
Viewing Comments 1 - 1 of 1
bill
posted 10/14/08 @ 11:57 AM CST
I saw the movie at the Ghent Film Festival. Many people walked out during the movie, and afterwards only negative comments could be heard, with which I do agree. (Continued…)
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