Support Shadows: Buy a Poster

The interwoven structure both of the narrative and the timeline makes the film genuinely gripping as we discover the true nature of each character's neurosis. They're all seriously disturbed; and the more we get to know them, it's not easy to feel much sympathy. But the script cleverly draws us in anyway, with humour, raw emotion and tricky plotting that hints that something terrible's about to happen ... intimately linked with the past tragedy. This is stunningly sure-handed filmmaking, gradually bringing the fragmented, sometimes confusing structure into focus ... even though it gets somewhat intense and overwrought at the end. The performances, young and old, are beautiful--brilliant casting draws on each actor's strengths in such a striking way that you can't imagine anyone else playing the characters. Close gets the film's most powerful sequences, while Mulroney, Clarkson, Olyphant and Place also shine in layered roles. And the overriding message is an important one--that we've become far too distracted by the importance of things, whatever they might be.