Sorry, Haters

This moving is very polarizing. I didn't like it, because I am an Arab and a Muslim and I felt the injustice of the taxi driver more personally the most of the audience, but my friend loved it, and thought it was thought provoking. Which it is. I will not ruin the ending for the reader, but it will shock you, so be prepared. Additionally, it isn't one of those movies that is very well balanced. In a sense, I didn't really care what Philly's motivations where in the movie, and the director's efforts at showing her as unstable were a bit heavy handed and clichéd. Other than that, the movie was fine, but not exceptional and NOT about Guantanamo.

Sorry, Haters (2005)

An emotionally intense but cinematically thin movie. I'm not sure where that leaves a viewer--I think it depends on what you want from a movie. The theme is ripe. An immigrant (a Muslim) with immigration problems meets a troubled woman (played by Robin Wright Penn) who abuses his situation. At it's most intense and personal it's moving and disturbing, and sad, if such terrible drama can just be plain old sad.

But there are improbabilities (including the way their first meeting in a cab becomes very personal, with another woman and her child, in the blink of an eye). And there is a kind of plainness to it all, the writing, the filming, the story itself, that is linear and not quite enough to keep it going. It's true, I think, that being low budget was not an issue, but even within the style it was filmed, there might have been a better sense of camera-work and editing. The one thing that pushes forward best is the acting, often conspicuous for exceeding the writing. Director and writer Jeff Stanzer deserves a nod for trying, but he's only taken this half way, was a movie.

Do I recommend this? I think only if you like Penn, like indie films about serious contemporary issues regardless of quality, or if you are interested in the theme of Muslim integration and devotion to not being integrated. It might surprise some people with its honesty and tenderness, between the long lulls. But others will sense, in the first twenty minutes, the tone of the whole movie, and might back out. For those latter, the ending is an intense surprise, and disturbing to the point of demented, so there is a need, perhaps, to stick it out, just for that five minutes. But then again, maybe not.

In New York, the Muslin taxi driver Ashade (Abdellatif Kechiche) drives a woman (Robin Wright Penn) to New Jersey and back and witness she scratching a car with a stone. She tells that her name is Philly and she is the powerful producer of the show "Sorry, Haters", and the owner of the car is the woman that "stole" her husband and daughter. Philly snoops in Ashade's life and he tells that he has doctorate in chemistry in Syria but is supporting his sister-in-law Eloise (Élodie Bouchez) and his nephew working as taxi driver since his brother, who is also a Canadian citizen, was arrested in JFK while in transit and deported back to Syria. Philly promises to help the family using a lawyer that is a friend of her. However, sooner his and Eloise's lives and hope are affected by the actions of Philly, whose name is indeed Phoebe.

"Sorry, Haters" is an impressive and disturbing movie about the prejudice and lack of respect with immigrants (and tourists) in the United States of America after the tragic September 11th by a minority of the American citizens and authorities. The treatment spent to Ashade by the security guard and the policewoman in the very beginning discloses the prejudice and indifference to the Muslin taxi driver. Robin Wright Penn has a top-notch performance in the role of an insane masochistic schizophrenic sociopath lonely woman and her complex character deserves to be studied by psychologists. The destructive behavior of the authorities based on an anonymous denounce, treating the innocent Eloise without the minimum respect, is very sad. My vote is seven.

Title (Brazil): "Esperança e Preconceito" ("Hope and Prejudice")

This acting in this film was excellent, and I found it very powerful and gripping with a very unexpected ending. It is too bad that smaller films like this, that are thought provoking and leave you thinking well after seeing it, often get overlooked.

As disturbing as Robin Wright Penn's character is, you can't take your eyes off of her and wonder what she is capable of next. And Abdel is also very captivating. The emotional twists, the way these two psychologically torture each other consistently leaves an element of surprise. Some may love it, some may hate it, but with these two controversial characters, I would be hard pressed to hear anyone leave this saying they were bored.

The one thing that is sad, is that indie films like this that are not getting the media attention deserved, means that Robin won't even get an Oscar nod, cuz she acted her ass off! Props to the writer/director Stanzler for taking a brave chance on this material.

With semi-well known actors giving powerful performances, this was a surprisingly good movie. Kechiche and Penn touch each others lives in ways no one should. Penn plays a vulnerable woman whose life has taken some horrible turns as she enlists the aid of the Muslim cabbie Kechiche to be her friend while she offers him legal help for his family. As events unfold, Kechiche realizes that everything is not as it seems, and has to make some critical life decisions in an attempt to get things back on track. Penn plays the role with absolute precision, giving you the chills the character masterfully manipulates the other characters, especially Kechiche, as you watch events unfold in disbelief.