The Fever

Sometimes surprises come from the most unexpected sources. My friend recorded this movie last night and this afternoon we saw it. Big, very BIG surprise as the movie has a truly compelling story and is awfully disturbing for some… well, it was for me that I felt the movie lasted a few minutes and not the 83 minutes it lasts and yes I still have a huge disturbing headache, my heart is pounding from being shrunk to its minimum expression and I simply love all these symptoms as this movie touched me like not many movies touch me on an intellectual, emotional and personal level.

This 2004 HBO films production is based on a play by Wallace Shawn and is directed by an unknown-to-me director by the name of Carlo Gabriel Nero; but the star of this movie is none other than Vanessa Redgrave that plays the “woman” that slowly goes into an introspection of her life and while she does it viewers get a “vision” of reasons why for wealth and poverty. Most of the movie is an intense monologue that Redgrave character does while you’re watching beautiful images of London and very raw images of a nameless country that definitively looks Eastern Europe but ideologically has to be a composite of many Latin American, Asian, African and East Europe countries, or if you wish, the so-called third-world countries.

Most surprising was to see Angelina Jolie playing the “revolutionary” in a small performance that surpasses many of her so much publicized roles; also here Joely Richardson playing the younger “woman” and Michael Moore as the “reporter”.

This movie definitively is not for the weak of heart, as the narrative is very intense and becomes more intense with the outstanding performance by Vanessa Redgrave. But the movie starts slowly, pickups the pace to become like a knife that cuts you and the knife will remain in you way after the movie is over. That’s it if you’re a sensible person, no matter your knowledge or beliefs about world politics and social-economical differences.

As a movie is very interesting –especially if you watch it in High Definition- as mixes beautiful and color full cinematography for London exteriors and interiors and a clear grayish sober palette for the nameless country scenes; then is also sprinkled with interesting minimal and linear animation scenes. But honestly, is not a movie to watch for the tech specs, this is a movie that everyone that admires the incredibly good career of Vanessa Redgrave has to watch, no matter if you find the story hard to watch or not.

Absolutely a Must Be Seen made for TV movie that was nominated for the Grand Prix at the 2005 Bratislava fest and Vanessa Redgrave was nominated in the 2008 Screen Actors Guild Awards for Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Television Movie or Miniseries (the movie was first screened in the US during 2007).

Okay, it is not for all audiences as the movie is mainly a monologue but please remember that’s a monologue by Vanessa Redgrave. You can hardly say 'I loved this movie' as this is not a movie to love, but I did and highly recommend it to many that read this blog, want to see Angelina Jolie performing above her regular roles and most of all, do not want to miss the excellent and remarkable performance by Vanessa Redgrave.

Big Enjoy!!!