Ida

Starring: Agata Trzebuchowska, Agata Kulesza, Dawid Ogrodnik, Jerzy Treba, Adam Szyszkowski
Directed by: Pawel Pawlikowski
Rating: PG-13
Genre: Drama
2014

Times Seen:
Tim: 1

Summary: A woman (Agata Trzebuchowska) about to take her vows to become a nun must travel home to visit her aunt (Agata Kulesza), where she begins exploring what happened to her parents during German occupation.

Review:

Tim: I enjoyed Pawel Pawlikowski's Academy Award winning Ida. The film won for Best Foreign Language Film, representing Poland. It was also nominated for Best Cinematography. The movie obviously enjoyed significant acclaim. I found the movie effective, but slightly less powerful than I'd hoped. The movie is certainly methodical (at times plodding) in its telling. The entire film is restrained, subtle. At times, this works exceptionally well. However, in the totality of the film, it makes this short 1 hour 22 minute film feel much longer. This is the kind of film you watch once, enjoy, but are certain never to revisit. It's good, but far from great.

The story itself doesn't offer much new, but it does pull it various elements into a manner that feels fresh. The story is about a young woman on the cusp of nunhood who is sent to visit her tough but worldly aunt. A big theme of the film is religious- we see the faithfulness of the young woman contrasted with the promiscuity and alcohol-fueled attempt to forget the past and her pain that her aunt exhibits. This is front-and-center and a major theme that's explored. I enjoyed this aspect of the movie and looking at religious faith trying to exist in the aftermath of one of the greatest atrocities in human history. That's the tie to the other major theme, Poland and its people trying to piece together their lives after the second World War. We've seen lots of movies about concentration camps and the terrors and horrors that took place in Europe, but fewer films dealing with what came next. I thought this combination of religious themes with the historical ones was brilliant and it allows the movie to feel like it has a unique voice. I'm not sure any individual element felt wholly unique, but Pawlikowski certainly combines these elements into something memorable.

I think my biggest issue with the film is that everything feels so understated. I get these approach to filmmaking, but does allow boredom to seep in. This movie is a slow burn for sure, but too slow. It blunts the effectiveness of the messaging. I don't think I was ever totally disconnected from the film, but it took too much energy to stay focused on the plodding story. Not enough happens throughout the runtime. Even when we get to the end and there's some fairly surprising moments, the edge has been blunted through the continuous restraint shown in every frame of the film. The movie doesn't deliver the knockout punch that it should have because we're not as emotionally invested in the characters as we needed to be.

I thought Agata Trzebuchowska and Agata Kulesza gave tremendous performances. This was Trzebuchowksa's first acting role, which is incredible when you see what she's able to do in the film. That being said, and as much as I liked her performance, I think Pawlikowski really limited what she was doing in her role. This might have been because her potential talent hadn't been realized yet, but Trzebuchowska can be a bit wooden in her performance. I know some of this was intentional because of the character and her life, but there were so many moments when I wanted to see more from Trzebuchowska. It wasn't about staring idly forward- there needed to be more movement, even subtle ones, of her eyes, her mouth, something to pull our attention to her character. Trzebuchowska is good, but good in a role that never asks too much of her. I have to believe with a more experienced actress, this role could have been forgettable. As it is, Trzebuchowska is really impressive for an actress with no experience. I'm not sure she makes the movie better.

Kulesza definitely does, though. She's an example of someone who is able to leverage their experience to deliver a powerful, memorable performance. She works well with Trzebuchowska and seems to revel in her role. She's the one part of the movie that isn't restrained and she's like a breath of fresh air whenever she's on screen (which, thankfully, is quite a bit). I found her significantly more interesting than our title character because Kulesza gives us more to work with.

As a whole, Ida is absolutely a good movie. I can see what the Academy appreciated about the film and I'm always happy for my Polish brothers and sisters, nice work winning an Oscar and representing the country so well. Personally, though, I liked Ida but I never loved it. It felt too blunted by Pawlikowski's approach. It was too minimalist, in a way that made it less memorable than it should have been. This is a good movie, yes, but I wish it was more.

Rating 1-10
Tim's Rating: 7



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