Fest Track On Sirk TV Film Review: THE REVISIONIST [Tribeca Film Festival - New York, New York]
Like “Next Life” the idea of a split narrative can be quite cool but requires a very specific language to make it work. “The Revisionist” [Spotlight Narrative] is an intriguing play on this idea as well because one is ever quite sure who is telling the story. More than likely it Elise played by Alison Brie who is writing her third book and looking for a context of intrigue. Her story involves her husband Jacob (Tom Sturbridge) who is tying to figure out how to get his father, a famous author (played by Dustin Hoffman) to tell his life story. There is some misdirects on actually what happened to his mother. In comes John (Andre Holland) an old friend but also a past paramour of Elise who has been off the grid for 15 years. He comes in and upends the status quo but it happens in different iterations. Of course the context is what makes a good story but it becomes more of an allegory rather than a realistic depiction. Hoffman obviously is the best at playing with form because the whole point is you never know what is performance, truth or simply ad lib with him which is what always makes him fun to watch.
Hoffman is in his mortality phase and yet he still wants to act even though he could only do high profile projects if he wanted to -- though he did have to make some adjustments some years back. Holland has the most to work with besides Brie who can always play comedy and drama together well. She seemed to be posing too hard in "Masters Of The Universe". She is much more natural here in a would-be alternate "Reality Bites" universe. There is some cross pollination among the characters because it is never clear what they actually want to accomplish though we do see the inherent results of their actions (though in second and third iterations it might be what perhaps the character of Elise would find most enticing). The ideal though is that there is consequences for all the respective characters' actions but is not quite clear where they land. It is an interesting narrative device but again "Next Life" used it better but that was more romance and less psychological drama. As the turns twist, "The Revisionist" does have a choose-your-own adventure aspect to it but obviously from a more adult point of view. The ideal though of choice versus instinct does play a role but ultimately the question is does the plot mean more than the journey. B
By Tim Wassberg
