Sundance movie eight: A good idea . . . or not.

The filmmakers and star of 52 Tuesdays

Sophie Hyde's film 52 Tuesdays seems like a good idea.  It's definitely a great idea if you want to get into Sundance.  Here's the concept: film your actors every Tuesday for a year.  That's right: You only film on Tuesdays.  And you film for one year.  It's actually an interesting idea. And kind of a theme this year at Sundance what with Richard Linklater's movie Boyhood achieving rave reviews.  That movie was filmed over 12 years.  That's right, I said 12 years. I haven't seen Boyhood but I'd like to.

52 Tuesdays isn't garnering the same critical acclaim. (Alright, I wrote that statement before Sophie Hyde won the world cinematic directing award for this movie.  I told you Sundance would love this idea.) And I'm OK with that. The idea of filming this movie every Tuesday for 52 weeks seems more like a gimmick than a contribution to the story. In fact, I'm still not sure why it even matters. Even if  you chose that as your strategy for creating a movie, I'm not sure I would have made it the title. The process had nothing to do with the story.  In fact, I don't think the movie would have been any different if it had been filmed in a few weeks.

Good news: the story is somewhat interesting. It's a story about a women transitioning to be a man.  Actually it's the story of a child who has a mom who is transitioning to be a man. Strangely, that doesn't seem to be an issue. I just wish the idea of the movie made the movie better. While the film is a modern story told in a modern way, I wouldn't fork over the price of admission to see this film.