Late Fragments

Daryl Cloran, Anita Doran & Mateo Guez

BY Robert BellPublished Jul 7, 2008

Aesthetically and thematically visible as a Canadian feature, Late Fragment ties together three unremarkable and lethargically directed stories of damaged souls quietly suffering through self-created isolation and holding patterns of destructive behaviour. Male strippers, self-mutilation, prostitution, alcoholism, statutory rape, theft and vengeance bog down the issue-based narratives that are both energised and vitiated by the interactive DVD template, which itself fragments each trajectory in a seemingly random and occasionally haphazard manner. The DVD is set up in a way that allows the viewer to choose the character they wish to follow, in addition to being able to decide where they enter the film. By pressing the "enter” button on the DVD remote, the audience can jump between storylines at any point without necessarily denigrating the spectator experience. As Late Fragment is essentially three short films directed by three different people, the main characters are only seen on screen together during restorative justice meetings where criminals and victims come together to talk about their inner-demons and past mistakes. At these meetings, the DVD will go into a loop, forcing the viewer to choose the character they wish to follow. It doesn’t last long, however, as the story will automatically jump back to other narratives after a brief moment. The first story follows Theo (Jeffrey Parrazo), a male stripper with a tendency to cut himself, who vows revenge on the man who soiled his childhood (Peter MacNeill). Faye’s (Krista Bridges) story explores her response and reaction to the fact that her boyfriend Marty (Darryn Lucio) is raping her daughter India (Tatiana Maslany) and the last story follows an alcoholic security guard named Kevin (Michael Healey) as he attempts to rebuild a relationship with his son (Alex House) while hiding a secret. While Mateo Guez’s direction of Theo’s journey stands out as the most visually arresting, it is Daryl Cloran’s investigation of Kevin that understands the puzzle-like nature of the overall structure most effectively. Regardless of the varying filmmaking abilities, the main struggle that Late Fragment has on the whole is that of cohesion, since the film feels incomplete when the closing credits come up. When watching it for the second time and repeatedly skipping through scenes that have already been viewed, it becomes clear that major plot points have been missed upon first viewing through the "fragmented” template, making one wish they could have just watched each story from beginning to end.
(Mongrel Media)

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