Following – Review # 6

Spine #638

Available on Blu-ray & DVD

Special Features:

DIRECTOR–APPROVED SPECIAL EDITION

• New, restored digital transfer, supervised by director Christopher Nolan, with uncompressed monaural soundtrack on the Blu-ray edition
• New 5.1 surround mix by rerecording mixer Gary Rizzo, presented in DTS-HD Master Audio
• Audio commentary by Nolan
• New interview with Nolan
• Chronological edit of the film
• Side-by-side comparison of the shooting script with three scenes from the film
• Doodlebug (1997), a three-minute film by Nolan, starring Following’s Jeremy Theobald
• Trailers

PLUS: A new essay by film critic and programmer Scott Foundas

New cover by Eric Skillman

Please note that whilst I try to not give away vital plot details/scenes/developments of the film, some reviews may contain mild spoilers.

Review

A highly enjoyable, extremely clever film.  This is not a story told in the classic chronological style.  This film tells a story in a fractured way, we go back and forth over a period of time.  That said, it is not too difficult to follow the main theme of the film.

We start with a voice-over, The Young Man (that is how he is cast in the credits) is describing how he watched people, followed them.  He is a would-be writer and he used this technique “to see where they went”.  Soon he is addicted and it is no longer “random” but specific people.  Here is where his troubles started!

A confrontation in a café leads to the main story of the film.  It seems that our stalker had found himself an interesting character (Cobb) of dubious employment.  He too is interested in people, or should I say interested in their property.

It is at this point when the film starts to go back and forth through time.  We see physical changes to The Young Man, a haircut, a black eye.  A strange relationship develops between the two characters; a relationship that is certainly one sided in terms of control.  The Young Man tries to impress Cobb by setting up a job himself; Cobb is not impressed with the quality of goods on offer or the person who owns them.  This does not deter our writer friend and he develops and relationship with a victim of theirs, who is not all she seems to be.

It is hard to describe the following events; this is definitely a film that needs to be seen in order to be appreciated. As I have said previously, the story is cut into segments that are jumbled; you can still follow, as long as you are concentrating on the film.  As the film quickens its pace we see a series of short segments.  I was taking notes whilst watching, to help me with this little write-up.  It was at this point where I only had to write a few words to describe what I was watching.

The Bar Lady Burglary

The Storage House

The Date

The Revenge

The High Life

The Lucky Escape

The Change

The Double Cross

The Attack Part I

The Attack Part II

The Frame

All the above indicate a part of the story and was my immediate thought to describe it.  As each one progresses, the story finally starts to all slot into place and even though you see the end before the beginning.  You start to develop your own thoughts as to how it will all pan out.

Overall I found this to be a very enjoyable film, and whilst it was only 70 minutes long it was 70 minutes of drama with twists and turns to kept me hooked.

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