Julian Po (1997)

Quirky, independent, theatrical, Christian Slater--these are all teasers that made me look forward to spending an hour or so "discovering" a jewel of a film. Boy, was I disappointed. Julian Po never gets over itself. The film is relentlessly self-conscious. I found myself unable to suspend disbelief for even a moment. The overdone, obviously theatrical sets, the overdone, obviously theatrical acting, the overdone, obviously theatrical directing -- well, you get the idea. Allegories do not need to be delivered sledge hammer style. And it's hard to feel much of anything for Julian Po because we never know much about him. The ridiculous girlfriend, the annoying townsfolk, the idiotic clergyman, the bratty kids -- why would anyone, particularly anyone with a life long ambition to get to the seaside (Slater's character), decide to stay in such a dismal place?

I think that the reason that Julian's past was not reflected was because they want people to relate. For example, If julian was going to kill himself because he...I don't know, let's say, killed his sister and was on the run, we wouldn't be able to relate to that because we've, hopefully, have never done such a thing.Instead, they chose to keep Julian's past unknown, so when he states that he is going to kill himself, we can all relate, because, and lets all admit, we have thought about it before. They want us to use our imaginations (and for some of you, this may be hard) as to what his past consisted of, because they want us to relate to this movie in one way or another and say "oh, I can understand what he feels, I've been there too."I also think that there was alot of symbolism. The townspeople saw the comming of Julian as somethink particular and strange when he first arrived, but when they found out that he was going to kill himself, they saw this as an opportunity to help a human being, hence the fact that they gave him several gifts and attention. But when he chose not to kill himself, the town felt taken for their good nature; they gave to him, trying to make his last days meaningful and with kind people, however expecting him to later take his own life. This, I think, is the meaning of the movie.

Indeed, if it's simple, it works. But the irony herein lies when you realize that simplicity and deep thought combinations, make extraordinary things. And this film, in my opinion, is simply delightful. Simple purpose, yet very thought-provoking in itself. I'd recommend it in a heartbeat. Being one of the few who find that the critics aren't always "up to par" so to speak, I think this flick was definately worth it's weight in gold. Go have some fun. Watch this. And when you're through, though you may be left saying "Uh... but..." see if you don't feel the same.

The beginning of this movie was good. It started to get really dumb after he told the people he wanted to kill himself. I think if I came from a little town like that I would be offended after seeing this movie. They made a lot of these people look dumb and crazy. How could these people have so little to do that they follow him around all day. A lot of times these people were telling him ways to kill himself like they were urging him to do it. How can so many people have little respect for other people? I also think they could have made a much better ending for this movie. There were some good parts to this movie also. Some people might like it, but I wouldn't recommend this to anyone.