Film Hick: Upside Down by Juan Diego Solanas (2012)

This looked pretty interesting when I saw it first talked about, but the interim between seeing a trailer and seeing the cover of the DVD again, I had pretty much forgotten what it was about.

I was ready to see a trippy sci-fi movie, but I got more than I bargained for.

The sci-fi wrappings aside, this is a love story, and it is the emotional resonance of the story, that drives and centres the story, rather than any real need for you to focus on the science. It is a nice metaphor … a way of exploring separation in a beautiful and interesting setting.

I got swept up in it, and, as you are supposed to, I was rooting for the main characters. Nothing gets in the way of the really important thrust of the tale and it is a believable romance. I like it when the humanity of people is approached from an oblique angle and somehow elucidated upon in a way a more straight up narrative might not be able to. This movie has a poetry to it, the canvas is maybe not large enough (the film is not long enough) to penetrate as deep into the subjects it wishes to touch on as you feel the director would like, but a good balance is struck, and I did not feel cheated by the choices and decisions that were made. This might be one of those cases where being a little longer would have allowed a little too much exposition to creep in, a deadening, and leadening of the story. I am glad that was avoided and the lightness and music at the film\’s heart was preserved.