The Moment (2013)

Powerful

It’s fine. It's literally the definition of a fine movie. You’ve seen it before, you know every beat and outcome before the characters even do. Only question is how much escapism you’re looking for.

By the time the dramatic fireworks start popping off, each one feels earned.

A terrific literary drama and character piece that shows how the process of creating art can be seen differently by those doing it and those looking at it from the outside.

The movie begins with a lot of photos of African and Middle Eastern people, in countries where there is instability. What have I gotten myself into? But this is the excellent work of photographer Lee, who is back home in the United States. She has broken up with boyfriend John, but she needs some of her equipment back from him and he's not answering the phone. She goes to his house and it's obvious the place has been abandoned, but there is food no one has eaten (no one human, anyway). Something has happened. She goes to the cops. Sgt. Goodman seems helpful. Later it is clear he has done a thorough job of investigating, and he does come up with answers.Lee goes to an exhibit of her photography. Her daughter Jessie is also a photographer, but her photos are merely art (very good art, too) rather than serving any substantial purpose. Jessie and Lee have a difficult relationship since Lee was hardly ever around when she was a child. And Lee's father Malik is now her ex-husband but they seem to have a friendly relationship.The photos are reminders of traumatic events, and with all that is going on in her life, Lee ends up in a mental institution.Four months earlier, Lee was recovering in a rehab facility from a bombing in Somalia. That's where she met John, who was also hurt and was so nice to her there.Then we go back to the present. Peter, a lawyer is also in the hospital receiving therapy. Dr. Bloom is treating them both. What a shame. I was enjoying the scenes from the past.But we'll get back to that. Lee will get out of the hospital and see the storage facility where John works and homeless Thomas lives. Lee and John have an enjoyable relationship which starts with her taking photos of him. Only later does it get troubled.And back to the present. It gets very confusing. Lee continues her therapy, worried that she killed John because she remembers doing something that could have killed him. Did she really? And Lee and Peter meet and become friends. One reason she likes him: he looks like John, but without a beard. And this is connected with the fact that the credits list a "Real Peter". I won't say why.Lee's relationship problems are complicated further, both four months ago and in the present, by her difficulties with Jessie.Also, we get to see Lee at work in Somalia with her translator. I'm going to guess her name is Hawa, from looking at the credits, but I didn't get her name from watching. Actually, I'd like to have seen more of these scenes.If the back and forth isn't confusing enough, some scenes are repeated, with some missing detail included on the second, third or fourth time.And we finally get some answers. Not the ones I was expecting or hoping for.Jennifer Jason Leigh is not that cute teenager from "Fast Times at Ridgemont High". I forget how many years ago that was. Someone in the movie comments that Lee looks younger than her age, but I think she looks her age. In some scenes she makes an effort to look good, but really her looks aren't that important since she has such an appealing personality. When she's not depressing. Even in those other scenes, I eventually adjust because Leigh does such a good job overall. She gives us quite a range of emotions and feelings, from nearly helpless or mentally incapacitated to troubled and confused to very confident, though I'm happiest when she's pleasant and funny. Yes, this is occasionally a romantic comedy.Martin Henderson effectively shows us two very different characters.Marianne Jean-Baptiste makes an excellent therapist. I would have been happier if the camera operator could have stayed still in her scenes.I was very surprised to see Meat Loaf in the credits. I don't care for the singer at all, but I knew the actor playing Sgt. Goodman did a good job, but I never suspected, even though I had seen the name earlier, that it was him.Alia Shawkat does a good job too as the troubled daughter.Overall, this is worth seeing, if you're willing to be challenged.

I saw Jennifer Jason Leigh on stage in Proof, and she was wonderful. She is a marvelous actress who appears in independent films of varying quality. "The Moment" from 2013 is just such a film. It has an interesting premise and had the potential of being truly brilliant. But it's too convoluted and misses the mark.That's just my opinion. People on the board seem to like it, though I think it only had 1-1/2 or 2 stars on Netflix, and a 5 rating here. Not sure who's voting.The movie goes forward and back in time. Leigh plays a photographer (named Lee), and when we first see her, she goes to the home of someone named John, calls him, and says her cameras are in his home and she needs to get in. He doesn't respond.She gets into the house and finds that he hasn't been there in quite a while. She goes to the police to report him missing.Then the movie starts to go back in time and into the present. Lee ends up in a psychiatric hospital and we learn about the problems she had with John. And she meets a man also in the hospital named Peter, whom she tells her therapist looks exactly like John. Both men are played by Martin Henderson, who could not be more handsome, and to have him play both parts was a major mistake. I realize I wasn't concentrating hard enough, but I had trouble figuring out if she was talking to John or Peter - were we in the past or the present?Anyway, Lee is afraid that she killed John. As she tries to regain some grip on reality, we learn about her problems with her daughter and what actually happened with John. She realizes the truth about John and the truth about her troubled relationship with her daughter.I feel that the director, Jane Weinstock, was not experienced enough to handle this kind of film, but I give her credit for taking it on. I understand, according to one review, that the people who liked it were psychiatrists or their patients. Interesting.Jennifer Jason Leigh was something like 51 when this was made, and she looks like a woman in her thirties, and she's not heavily made up. In Proof, she was playing someone 25 and she was 40. She does a great job of playing this confused and frightened woman.This is a psychological drama with an unsatisfying ending. I can't say I liked it. I do think it was a mistake not to cast different actors as John and Peter. It would have helped - immensely.

Jane Weinstock's exciting The Moment kept me on the edge of my seat, literally. The Moment traces the shattered mind of Lee, a war photographer, as she tries to piece together her recent past. The trauma of war, the possibility of a lover's murder or suicide, these plague her. Weinstock lets events unfold, in complex moments that evidence Lee's patterns of thought and memory, especially in fascinating scenes between her and her psychoanalyst. It's a heady, sexy movie, each gripping moment beautifully visualized. What I love especially is that there is a reason and motive for everything that happens in every scene. The Moment is a thrilling experience.

I'll start off with something positive: all of the performances in "The Moment" were quite good. The casting was really spot-on, and all the actors performed admirably. Jennifer Jason Lee does a great job capturing the essence of a woman completely detached from reality. Beyond that, I couldn't find anything I liked about this movie, starting with the extreme shaky-cam throughout (was this movie shot from a canoe?) to the awkward, mumbling lost-soul characters, the too- close close-ups, constant loss of focus, the confusing time-jumps forward and back and around again, and the dialogue that just never rang true for me. If I saw that refrigerator butter dish one more time I was going to scream. I couldn't help but wonder "Who put up money for this?" At the after-party at the Tribeca Film Festival, the crowd was quiet and polite during the Q&A, and the only audience question was from someone curious about the therapist scenes. That's a clue. In the unofficial poll I conducted among people I spoke with at the party, the only folks who liked the movie were either psych patients or psychology students. So I guess the bottom line is, if you're crazy, you'll love this movie.