I want to say right at the top that HANDLE WITH CARE is very good and that you should see it. I am saying this right at the top because I don't want that to get lost in my discussion of the film that follows.
The plot of the film has a snarky writer selling off the wedding gifts from his short lived marriage. The marriage had imploded and in less than a year it was over. He became hardened to the idea of love because, he realizes, we can never truly know anyone. However as he gets rid of the unopened and unused gifts he begins to open up as to the possibility that love could actually be something thanks to the passion of the people he meets.
At it's heart I think that Matthew James Thompson's script is one of the wisest, most moving, thoughtful and full of life one's that I've run across in a long time. It is a film full of humanity and soul. Sections of the film warmed the cockles of my heart and had me gobsmacked with the level insight contained inside them. Its a film whose insights had me talking to the screen. (It also gloriously does not follow the expected path or have an expected resolution -bravo.)
The trouble is the presentation or the construction doesn't always work, making what should have been a best of the year film, just a good one.
The issue is that the film doesn't just unfold before us, but is narrated by Cole (an excellent Justin H Min). From first frame to the last Cole's presence hangs over the film and comments over everything. Evrything is ordered and revealed to illustrate what he is saying. While what he is saying is spot on perfect, we don't need to be hand held so much. It comes off as a lecture more than a film. Actually this comes off a theater piece more than a film since the narration by Cole would be exactly what you would do to move a play along. His narration would move us from place to place on stage, we don't need that on screen.
I became frustrated. I wanted to see this story unfold, not be told every detail. Yes, I liked what I was seeing but I wanted to see the lives of the characters as lived, not just as filtered through Cole's telling. I quickly fell in love with all the characters on the screen and I wanted to see them more as people rather than just characters in Cole's tale.
I keep wondering if perhaps this is the result of this being Director Thompson's first feature film and he wanted to show what he could do. Not to put too fine a point on it, he can do wonders. Almost everything here from the cast, to the craft and especially the script is sterling and best of the year material. The problem seems he simply us holding the beautiful bird too tighly in his hands that we can't see the full magnificence because his hands are in the way.
Don't get me wrong, I love every damn piece of this film and I truly think they are some the very best I've run across in any film all year. I just wanted to love the film as a whole. I wanted to have my heart explode at the end and be a sobbing mess. Instead I got the feelies multiple times through the film and really liked it when it ended.
My disappointment at not getting a best of the year cinematic experience aside, HANDLE WITH CARE is a must see film for anyone who wantes to see a beautiful film full of wisdom, great characters and occasionally magic
