The Guitar (2008)

This movie is the proof that the world is becoming a sick and dumb place

Good story, Not enough for a whole film

The film creates a perfect balance between action and depth of basic needs, in the midst of an infertile atmosphere.

A great movie, one of the best of this year. There was a bit of confusion at one point in the plot, but nothing serious.

This film is like a children's fable that forgot it's supposed to have a moral.The movie begins with Melody Wilder (Saffron Burrows) having the worst day of her life. Her doctor tells her she has cancer and will be dead in two months, then she loses her job and finally, her boyfriend breaks up with her. So Melody abandons her crappy basement apartment, takes all her money out of the bank and decides to live like there's no tomorrow. For Melody, that weirdly involves living like a hermit in an expensive penthouse loft and buying a lot of stuff over the phone. Two delivery people fall in love with Melody. One's a man and one's a woman but neither of them have any reason to quickly fall into bed with Melody. Capping it all off, Melody buys and learns to play a guitar like the one she was fascinated with as a child, which we see in repeated flashbacks to her unhappy childhood living with her bickering hippie parents over a music store. As for the rest of the plot, I don't want to give it away…but have you ever heard the story about the guy who was told he had 6 months to live, so he spent all his money and ran up huge bills on his credit cards because he's never have to pay them back? If you remember the twist to that story, you know what happens in The Guitar.Writer Amos Poe seems to have come up with a script that is completely oblivious to its own meaning. The story of Melody is about freeing yourself from the chains that are holding you down, an ignorant desire for fulfillment, the perils of self-indulgence and the tempting appeal of the strange and unknown. This screenplay doesn't even acknowledge of that. It doesn't demonstrate or explore why Melody is a timid, tiny person before her diagnosis. It can't recognize how pathetic it is for someone to spend their last days on Earth catalog shopping. It fails to understand why someone might be truly attracted to someone in Melody's circumstance and how and why that attraction would wither away. It's even unable to fathom the lesson that either Melody or the audience is supposed to get from this film. The Guitar is like the work of a color-blind painter who makes the sky yellow and the sea black and the ground pink without knowing that he's doing it.Director Amy Redford gives us a textbook example of the congenital flaw in the modern filmmaker. Individual images in The Guitar look nice, yet none of them flow together or add up to anything. Redford might be able to make good commercials or, given the large number of montages in this movie, great music videos. She doesn't give any indication she has the slightest idea how to tell a story visually, however.Saffron Burrows spends a great deal of the film in her birthday suit, though we quite strategically never get a good look at her breasts. Whether she's clothed or not, Burrows manages to summon up a grand total of two expressions for her entire performance. She either looks anguished or befuddled. She never even blends the two. It's like someone switches her from one setting to the other. None of the other actors have a chance to show they can do anything more than exactly what the director tells them to do. We do get to see one of Paz de la Huerta's boobs and are thankfully spared the sight of any man ass.It wouldn't be completely accurate to say The Guitar is a bad movie. It is aggravating and perplexing because you keep expecting the film to have a point and it never does, despite everything about the story indicating that it should. Unless you enjoy being exasperated, don't pick up The Guitar.

For fans of Saffron Burrows, it will be an enjoyable 90-minutes of your time. She does the best with what little material she has to work with and turns in a gutsy, raw performance. The first half-hour is especially strong as the camera focuses almost exclusively on Burrows as her character copes with the diagnosis of a terminal illness, losing her job and being dumped by her boyfriend… all on the same day.This is a very small budget production and it shows. The 21-day shoot makes for a slightly rushed and rough finished product. The directing by Amy Redford is on par, or slightly better, for an indie film. The sound and lighting were all acceptable as the majority of the film takes place in a huge penthouse loft with ample sunlight during the day and candle light being effectively used in the evening. There isn't much in the way of a supporting cast as this is primarily a showcase for Burrows displaying how one person might cope given this horrible scenario.Some people will openly criticize how the Melody Wilder character initially deals with her dire situation, but I had no problem with it. I rather enjoyed it, actually. If you like Burrows or the premise as stated in the plot summary, I recommend seeing this film.However, I personally prefer "Henry Poole Is Here," also released in 2008, by the talented director Mark Pellington (Arlington Road, The Mothman Prophecies). It has a larger budget which is used wisely by casting some well known as well as virtually unknown actors, and possesses quality direction and superior production aspects. The camera work is especially good.

just finished watching it on cable TV.dding't have a clue what would it be,but loved!just loved!It's always surprising to see how women,generally speaking,react towards the hardships of life.in one single day,Melody get's fired and dismissed by her boy friend-not to mention that in the same day she was diagnosed with cancer and a month to live.The director chose the winter landscape to sum up the tragedy,the lack of any possible sense life can be,the despair... the actress (Burrows) offers us a superb acting,especially when she's suffocated by the weight of her existence,and her pain.Outstanding.When she decides to abandon her terrible living quarters and goes to a loft,she is ready to enlarge her limits,her boundaries .she needs then beautiful artifacts ,and she buys them.Roscoe and Cookie become part of her cure.the guitar was her long dream,buried in the past and finally she gets it.it could be a pet or a child,but for her was the guitar.probably is a female's film and not to be seen with glasses of moralism.loved the direction,the photography,the plot,the acting.

This movie did make me feel for the woman because of her illness and for the cancer it made me feel like she has hope... of dieing.Her illness is that she is 100% materialistic and shallow and has no idea of how to live a happy life and even the fact that she is dieing, which she finds out as the movie begins, cannot seem to give her any willpower to think on how to really find some real substance to what life she has left.Not only does she seem to live in a void of meaning but the entire movie and the way the effects are used seem to emphasize emotions to trivialities. One is left with the impression that the people behind the production believe that the substance of life is in buying new curtains.Even though events take different turns towards the end, she still doesn't learn anything new and the movie remains with the same shallow thought that it started out with: spend more, take risks and you'll be happier.To be fare, if buying stuff is the best thing in life you can imagine then this movie probably isn't all bad for you.