| Overall Grade: |
A |
|
| Story: |
N/A |
|
|
| Acting: |
N/A |
|
|
| Direction: |
N/A |
|
|
| Visuals: |
N/A |
|
|
This film is underrated
by Semi-Mad Scientist (!) (movies profile)
Apr 24, 2008
9
of
9 people found this review helpful
When I first saw this film in the cinema years ago, I was not overly impressed. It didn't seem to hold my fascination for long enough periods of time.
However, as I matured from a underclassman in college into true adulthood, I somehow managed to recall certain gems in the film, such as Joe's visit to the luggage store and, of course, one of the two greatest weddings in cinematic history (the other being from Spaceballs, the short-short version). As you might tell, I prefer to bypass the pomp and circumstance associated with most ritual and just get it over with.
After it finally came out on DVD, I made my purchase and began to take note of the almost surreal philosophy that the film generates through its eclectic collection of bizzare dialogue. Perhaps it is reaching for a realm that only a few can ever really obtain, leaving the rest of the world with the other two Hanks/Ryan films that ground themselves more into the accessible. This film requires the viewer to shed the mundane and seek wisdom in a more ethereal sense.
What does the movie then say? Perhaps it says that within each of us, there really are two worlds, the lofty and the mundane. Some of the characters live mostly in the mundane (Ryan's first character, Dede), not wanting to venture into the unknown. Ryan's second character, Angelica, is nothing but lofty, leaving her unable to connect with the outside world on her own, and despondent when it is forced upon her. Ryan's third character, Patricia, has both worlds within her, but they are initially out of balance. Her animus towards her father, translated onto Joe, is a poison within her spirit. Only when see loses the pseudo-control that she exerts and becomes totally dependent upon Joe for survival does the natural balance heal.
And Joe's role in this? I seem to compare it to Hanks' more well-known role of Forrest Gump, in that he is a catalyst for personal growth in others. (The real story of Forrest Gump was in the characters of Lt. Dan and Jenny, while Forrest remained unchanged.) However, Joe is simply not a catalyst, but a symbiont, for he is changed as much as he changes. Like unto Forrest Gump, Joe requires long periods of contact with others in order to affect that change in others, while he serves as a mirror when confronted with others. On his one date with Dede, he had only become this symbiont, so he appears lofty while Angelica causes him to seem mundane. It is Patricia that effect the true change in him, and he in her. Only after the fire of her anger has quelled does he manage to fold into the layers of her psyche, just the symbionic joining occurs, whether he believes it or not. Despite his protest, the two together must meet Fate , hand-in-hand, as husband and wife. It is this realisation that allows the two to move "away from the things of man" and achieve the realm of actualised persons.
Joe Versus the Volcano was not a cinematic phenomenon, nor should it have been. It is an art film without the pretensions of art, rather than an art film wanna-be. Instead it is a quiet comedy that is worth at least seeing to compare it to Sleepless in Seattle and You've Got Mail. You've Got Mail is very easy to access, and Sleepless in Seattle requires only the leap of faith that True Love exists. Joe Versus the Volcano requires a more subtle expression of faith, that parhaps life is indeed worth living to the fullest, despite the risks and known dangers, and it doesn't require a leap into a volcano to come to that realisation. |
My Public Profile 
