Vodka Lemon ***

Directed by Hiner Saleem.

A widower, with three apparantly useless sons, struggles financially in an isolated village in post-Soviet Armenia, selling off his possessions one by one to supplement his $10/month pension. Making frequent trips to the cemetery to visit the grave of his deceased wife, he eventually warms up to a woman who visits the grave of her deceased husband.

The story is not very well developed, but the movie is worth watching simply for a glimpse into the culture of these people. It's interesting to learn that they preferred living under communism.

Caché ****

If you like a whodunit/thriller, you will like Caché (English title: Hidden). Georges (Daniel Auteuil) and Anne Laurent (Julliet Binoche) learn they are being filmed by an unknown voyeur with unknown intentions. They feel threatened and violated. The situation puts them on edge, but when Georges reveals that he has a suspect in mind, but is not forthcoming about it with Anne, she becomes understandably furious with him. We soon learn that George is a creep. And Anne soon she learns that he cannot be trusted.

A bit of dark history in Georges’ past begins to emerge, which torments him. We learn that as a boy, he fabricated lies about an orphan, Majid, who his parents intended to adopt. Georges’ lies led the parents to instead place Majid into an orphanage. Georges is convinced that Majid, now a middle-aged man, is twisted and intent on paying him back. Perhaps. Perhaps not.

The movie does not get neatly resolved, leaving the viewer uncertain, on edge and questioning everything that has happened. There are a number of puzzling events in the movie that are not explained, but which have a disconcerting effect. Near the end, there is a dream scene in which a young boy is forcibly placed into a car and taken away. My guess is that it’s Majid, on his way to the orphanage. The scene confirms that Georges remains tortured. I am left feeling that Georges has not revealed all the lies he concocted.

Director Michael Haneke has us trying to complete the puzzle, long after the movie has ended, but we are missing too many pieces. He has, it appears, intentionally withheld them. Like the characters in the movie, which harbor secrets, Haneke is not forthcoming and leaves us guessing. This movie could have left me thinking it was a dismal failure because I could not figure it out. Instead, it turned out to be a success because I could not figure it out.

12 Monkeys ***1/2

Directed by Terry Gilliam, anyone who has seen Brazil will see some similarities between this science fiction thriller and the alternate world that Gilliam created in Brazil. The rust, the consantly dripping machinery and unexpected twists leave you in a heap, bewildered and exhausted, but thoroughly entertained.

In 12 Monkeys, Cole (Bruce Willis), a convict, is sent back in time on a dangerous mission to collect information about a virus that killed 5 billion people in 1996. The remaining humans have retreated to a subteranean world that is evidently safe (although very leaky, steamy, rusty, and filled with valves). Time travel seems to be an inexact technology and he shows up early (1990). He is promptly committed to an insane asylum and the movie takes off from there.

Unlike Brazil, which is entirely entertaining but unexplainable, 12 Monkeys has a clear plot that holds together.