Jamie Jay Johnson longs for a holiday but is too broke to be able to afford to go anywhere. Undeterred he decides to spend his holiday in his bedroom. Becoming miniaturised he begins to look at his room in an entirely new way, focusing on the little things and hanging out with the locals.
I'll admit that it sounded like an art student's bad dream but I decided to watch this film anyway. I'm not the most educated guy in the world, so maybe that's why anything that smacks of being inaccessible to an audience or pretentious really just gets my goat. This film does well then, to totally avoid that trap and to involve me in a film which, to be fair, is pretty obscure in it's overall aim, approach and delivery. The film sees a miniature version of Johnson focusing on the little aspects of his bedroom and gradually coming to appreciate what he has there.
It mixes genres quite well. At times it is a comedy, with imaginative flights of fancy involving an attractive fly, while at others it is very thought provoking - the simplest but most effective example being him realising that he makes friends on holiday really easily but has never really spoken to his neighbours. His dialogue is the way this mix comes across, some of what he says is intelligent and some is funny - he skates a very thin line and risks being seen as pretentious or, to put it less politely, `up his own a*se' and does occasionally come across as a bit of a pretentious sort, but not to the detriment of the film.
The film works well as a sort of Zen look at your surroundings. While little comes from the film other than the odd sweeping lesson, it is still worth watching as it is quite thought provoking as well as being slightly amusing (if not hilarious). The Times accused it of being a piece of tacky reality TV and, in a way, I agree, but it is different enough to be passable.
I'll admit that it sounded like an art student's bad dream but I decided to watch this film anyway. I'm not the most educated guy in the world, so maybe that's why anything that smacks of being inaccessible to an audience or pretentious really just gets my goat. This film does well then, to totally avoid that trap and to involve me in a film which, to be fair, is pretty obscure in it's overall aim, approach and delivery. The film sees a miniature version of Johnson focusing on the little aspects of his bedroom and gradually coming to appreciate what he has there.
It mixes genres quite well. At times it is a comedy, with imaginative flights of fancy involving an attractive fly, while at others it is very thought provoking - the simplest but most effective example being him realising that he makes friends on holiday really easily but has never really spoken to his neighbours. His dialogue is the way this mix comes across, some of what he says is intelligent and some is funny - he skates a very thin line and risks being seen as pretentious or, to put it less politely, `up his own a*se' and does occasionally come across as a bit of a pretentious sort, but not to the detriment of the film.
The film works well as a sort of Zen look at your surroundings. While little comes from the film other than the odd sweeping lesson, it is still worth watching as it is quite thought provoking as well as being slightly amusing (if not hilarious). The Times accused it of being a piece of tacky reality TV and, in a way, I agree, but it is different enough to be passable.