Everything Put Together

Made before the Oscar-winning Monster's Ball and shot on DV, Forster's second film is an intelligent, well-acted 'issue' movie given visceral impact by a combination of bravely honest attention to detail and an adventurous stylistic approach. Beginning in almost documentary mode, the film shifts slowly into ghost story territory, when, following a successful delivery, the pretty Angie (Mitchell) loses her baby to Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS). Forster immerses the viewer in the shocked, grieving mental state of his protagonist, outlining the awful isolating effects of inexplicable loss, and the closing ranks of the 'normal' against the 'afflicted'. The screenplay arguably loads the dice: although Angie's husband Russ (Louis) is shown to be quietly stoic and supportive, if in the end ineffectual, all her friends abandon her for one reason or another, and her distant, high achiever mother is presented as a cipher. As an experimental exercise in the use of cinematic Expressionism in the pursuit of psychological realism, the film scores very high. As a social critique, it's hard and unfathomable. Exploding the myths of sisterly, familial and social competence, while leaving the solution open.