Rating of
2.5/4
Wrap (Or Warp) Your Mind Around This
Unknown - wrote on 12/08/14
The basic premise of 'The Congress' is a new intriguing one that definitely had my attention. Taking inspiration from recent performance capture technologies in film, Robin Wright (playing herself) is asked to do the most extensive of this kind ever done in order to capture her entire being and have it be used in various media without her actual physical participation. The contract lasts for twenty years and sees a non-aging 34 year old version of Robin acting extensively. The first act covers this well, but I lost investment with the characters in the next two thirds because it felt like a different movie. It becomes a full-on animated flick, besides a short return to live-action in the finale. This section is 100% sic-fi. A completely new world, with new rules, is introduced and explored. There's a ton of creative visuals. The story took a half angled nosedive. The main problem is the inconsistencies between the beginning and the rest, tonally and thematically. The resolution does try to bridge an emotional connection from one to the other by calling back to the relationship with her son. Their story wasn't explored enough to begin with, so I ultimately didn't care. Film fans will get more out of this than others. There's a few fascinating pieces worth absorbing. The individual ideas are stronger than the whole.
