MOVIE REVIEW: The Romantic

The Web site for the award-winning alternative weekly, the Philadelphia City Paper.

0 comments

MOVIE REVIEW: The Romantic

POSTED: Wednesday, February 16, 2011, 9:00 PM

Filed Under: Arts | Critical Mass | Movies | Video | Philly Artists Movie Review

TheRomanticMovie.com

A still from The Romantic.

"If this is a story, who's writing it?" asks the hero of The Romantic, an animated feature film released online this week. The answer: Philadelphia's Michael P. Heneghan, who made the movie without a budget over three years. The Romantic calls itself "a mythological horror about monsters & magic." It's an apt description. The beautifully-rendered film plays with themes from Greek and other mythology: gods as fallible as humans face dramas above while humans try to make sense of the world below. And when the two worlds collide, things become unpleasant for everyone.

Heneghan

Humans meddling in godly affairs, and gods meddling in humans' lives, provide much of The Romantic's twisty-turny plot. The film begins with Romance himself, a young man in search of lost love. But it's not the standard "she left me, I want her back" quest: Romance's concern is that he has stopped loving his girlfriend, and he wants to reignite his passion. Aided by a mysterious little man called Patience, who provides most of the film's humor, Romance visits a goddess. She can fix his plightbut to do so "ain't natural," she warns. Of course, being a tragic mythological hero, he goes ahead with the plan, to disastrous results which drive the bulk of the dark story. Don't expect a traditional Hollywood story arc: the plot here is more episodic and can at times be difficult to follow. Our hero's many encounters are unified, however, by his unending struggle to understand the cruel worldand whether we're better off writing our own life stories, or having them dictated by forces beyond our control. Heneghan and co.'s ultra-smooth animation is gorgeous and originalthough be prepared for some unflinching bloodshed. While there are echoes of Tim Burton, the creepy character design is unique in its sad eyes, giant hands, and skinny legs. The backgrounds, too, are notably unusual: trees, for example, are sometimes left as simply penciled-in sketches, adding a certain humanity to the scenes. Romance is voiced passionately and convincingly by Jason Salerno in a cast of able performers. One actor, Nathan Terry, also wrote the film's original score, whose sweet, atmospheric tunes offer a contrast to often-harrowing events onscreen without distracting from them. The result is an eerie, haunting film that's part myth, part fairy tale, and part fable. The Romantic was unveiled, appropriately, on Valentine's Day; it can be viewed for free here.

BRAIN

Posted 2011-02-17 13:19:43

I LAUGHED. I CRIED. I LAUGHED AGAIN. THEN I CRIED SOME MORE. THEN LAUGHED ONE LAST TIME. THEN SMILED.

Posted by Matt Cantor @ 9:00 PM Permalink | Post a comment

0 comments

Comments (0)

PHILLY LOVE NOTES: An ode to Spruce Street
Q&A with SHARI SOLANIS: "The goal isn't pornography"
ICE CUBE: In Memoriam: Joe Tartaglia
What we're trying to do this weekend
SEXY TIME Q&A: I've never had an orgasm during sex with a man — and I'm 30!
Coming soon to Philly: Two cockamamie movie promotion schemes
CONCERT REVIEW & PHOTOS: James Blake @ TLA 5/11
Q&A with Tony Goldwyn: "Life is gray, and relationships are, too"
CONCERT REVIEW: Primus (3D & quadraphonic sound) @ The Tower 10/17
ICEPACK ILLUSTRATED: The Archbishop meets the Geator, the Mayor goes suit shopping, Le Bec Fin fin.

About this blog

Featuring everything from event roundups to concert reviews and sex talk, City Paper's Critical Mass is a space for off-the-wall coverage of Philly's A&E scene.

Follow Critical Mass editors Patrick Rapa and Emily Guendelsberger on Twitter:

@mission2denmark | @emilygee

Search this blog:

Topics:

Blog archives:

May
April
March

February
January

Past Archives: