"Un Crabe dans la tete" focuses on Alex, a handsome but selfish underwater photographer who undergoes a number of emotional, life-changing experiences while passing through Montreal. When all is said and done, however, writer/director Andre Turpin has presented little more than a rudderless narrative featuring a bunch of unlikable and uninteresting characters, characters whose patience for the boorish protagonist is nearly unaccountable.
Again and again, one finds oneself mystified by Alex's actions: If he's meant to be a selfish man, only out for himself and afraid of commitment--leaving his wife after the wedding without a word--why, on the other hand, is he so dangerously loyal to a pathetic female drug dealer? If he can thoughtlessly fall into the arms of his best friend's vulnerable lover, how can he suddenly be so completely (almost overly) ethical about a series of disturbing photographs his agent wants him to display? Great films have been made by examining "unlikable" or selfish characters and about people whose actions and motivations are almost inexplicable (i.e. John Cassavetties' films), but the confusion of this film's characters is never thematized or explored. Alex acts the way he acts only so the melodrama can take another surprising turn.
The film is sharply, if erratically, shot, but most paying audiences will surely lose patience with Alex and his associates long before it has ended.
Again and again, one finds oneself mystified by Alex's actions: If he's meant to be a selfish man, only out for himself and afraid of commitment--leaving his wife after the wedding without a word--why, on the other hand, is he so dangerously loyal to a pathetic female drug dealer? If he can thoughtlessly fall into the arms of his best friend's vulnerable lover, how can he suddenly be so completely (almost overly) ethical about a series of disturbing photographs his agent wants him to display? Great films have been made by examining "unlikable" or selfish characters and about people whose actions and motivations are almost inexplicable (i.e. John Cassavetties' films), but the confusion of this film's characters is never thematized or explored. Alex acts the way he acts only so the melodrama can take another surprising turn.
The film is sharply, if erratically, shot, but most paying audiences will surely lose patience with Alex and his associates long before it has ended.