GERRY (3 outta 5 stars) Okay, you are either going to find this movie incredibly fascinating or incredibly boring... or, like me, you mind keep alternating from one opinion to the other. But, by the time the movie was over (and there were actually times during my first viewing that I prayed it would be over soon) I had to admit that I admired the choices of the people involved to make the movie this way. Matt Damon and Casey Affleck play two taciturn young dudes who take a long drive out to the middle of a rocky, mountainous desert to visit some sort of nature retreat. They park the car and go off looking for "the thing". Quite a bit of time passes and soon the guys realize that they have no idea where the car is and are hopelessly lost. The keep climbing higher and higher rocks and mountains, hoping to get a glimpse of somewhere to head for... a highway, a recognizable landmark, people... but their efforts never pay off. To give the audience a sense of the futility and the anxiety that the lost hikers feel, the film is shot in a series of long, unedited takes... where not much happens. The shots look great... the desert has some great scenery to show off... but at times you may become irritated by the monotony of some of the scenes. The two stars don't have a lot of dialogue... unlike the leads in such similar movies as "The Blair Witch Project" and "Open Water"... who keep the audience's attention with endless dialogue. Do one or both or neither of the guys escape death in the desert? Well, you'll need to watch the movie to find out.
