the guitar

In times of desperation, how do we look to love? If these were our last hours on earth, would the superficiality of form dictate our chance at happiness? These are the questions posed in the ephemeral wonderland of Amy Redford's The Guitar.

Mel (Saffron Burrows) is an inconspicuous New Yorker, who, within the first five minutes of the film, is left jobless, single and with only two months to live. Is this the end? It would seem so. But returning to the depths of her dismal apartment, Mel's silent distress is fatefully transformed into her last chance at the life she never lived.

Through breathtaking cinematography and sound design, we follow Mel on a love affair with the material (hence the title) and the taboo, where words are few but emotions are resounding. Burrows dazzles in this factually-based urban fairy tale of a woman with terminal cancer and no shoulder to cry on but her own.

Screenwriter Amos Poe's Deus ex Machina of an ending is perhaps the film's most unsatisfying point. However, the visual style of The Guitar is undeniably original in its use of the mise-en-scene as a window into the human emotional process. This style explores the potential dialogue in every frame and proves that color and location can serve as characters in themselves.