This movie was so-so. It had it's moments, but wasn't the greatest.

At first rather annoying in its heavy emphasis on reenactments, this movie ultimately proves fascinating, simply because the complicated, highly dramatic tale it tells still almost defies belief.

All of these films share one commonality, that being a kind of emotional center that humanizes a cast of monsters.

The film's masterful storytelling did its job. The message was clear. No need to overdo.

One of this movies you watch and getting excited about but then disappoints you after all.Actually i couldn't find the story. Neither her relation to her husband, nor her relation the her sister or parents. I get that she is struggling with life. But the why isn't really told at all. For a movie which is totally about its main character, you get pretty much no insight in her character. All things she does are making some sense. but for me it is the task of the movie to explain it to me. to let me understand the character and her feelings. And this is done poorly. Actually the movie kinda got me when she was planing everything. giving her children away, the strange black car at the start[..]. So at least, i thought, she had a plan. And especially the movie made it look like she had a plan. But in the end: No, no plan. Shes not running away traveling the world or is becoming a sex slave (wich i thought at some point). She just drives to nowhere chased by a police car appearing like in a classical action movie (totally stupid and with no reason). If this is a metaphor for her getting nowhere in life, If this should be the whole point of this movie, showing that she cant run away and cant get nowhere, i will instantly take 3 stars off my rating and never watch movies again.Also 50% of the screen time you see her having sex with her husband. Yeah OK i get that she had great sex and a lot. but really it felt like the whole point in this movie was showing them "making love". Anyway, i like the style and display of sexuality in this movie. Its just too much and always the same shot and after the 3 or 4th time nobody can tell me that it has any value to the plot anymore.6 points because her performance is great and for nice shots and colours. But i wouldn't recommend it to anyone.

Lacking in substance.Told through a series of flashbacks, and odd cuts, this movie is about a woman who suddenly just drives out down the highway, seemingly running away from something. We see her relationship with her husband - how they met, fell in love, had kids and the trials and tribulations of their marriage. We also see the woman's relationship with her parents (and the issues they bring) and with her sister.Surely enough of a kernel around which to fashion an emotional and interesting story. Unfortunately, there isn't much more to the story. There's really not much meat on the bones here. Important details are missing, things just seem to happen for no rhyme or reason, some details are provided about characters but then these details ultimately, have no bearing on the story, themes and sub- plots are introduced but are ultimately very underdeveloped or are purely red herrings. All this while told through random, not- necessarily-in-chronological-order flashbacks.It is rare that a movie feels over-edited, but this a definite case of that. The movie should have been at least 30 minutes longer, which would have been easily doable and watchable - the finished product is only 83 minutes long!Disappointing.

As may be apparent from my moniker, I have a particular interest in all things Greek. This film, which I saw at the 2015 International Film Festival Rotterdam, deals with current political and economic difficulties that this nation faces, but its focus is on the domestic (in both senses)causes of those troubles.Angeliki Papoulia, the bright star at the heart of this film, plays Maria, a woman who has not seen anything go her way. Her husband, a sailor, is not there enough for her, and her sister, her one-time perfect companion, is now married to a reprehensible lump of a human. What's more, the family business, which her invalid mother has handled (poorly) without help from her husband, is on the verge of ruin. The family is in debt, Maria is at her end of her tether, and nothing in her personal life gives her satisfaction anymore.This film, like others that have been placed under the general heading of films from the Greek Weird Wave, needs thought and attention. Its narrative breaks up linear time, and its characters are often found committing strange acts, but there are, I think, valid reasons behind all the choices that the director has made. The use of flashback in a film that is examining how Maria's past (and her family's past actions) has thoroughly destroyed her present, is a reminder that we cannot always simply forget and move on. As to those moments where some viewers might ask why - her husband's sexual actions at sea, her father's failure to act until he is forced by his daughter into undertaking a final mad measure, or Maria's own orchestration of her father's desperate crime - I would put their behaviour down to a shared tendency to live in the now, regardless of consequences, a tendency that, at the national level, sits as the foundation-stone of the crisis depicted in this film.I cannot close without heaping praise on Angeliki Papoulia's performance. Once again, she has offered the viewer a fully fleshed, complicated and absorbingly real character that also manages to operate as an archetype.

A Blast makes its point clear from the opening scene. Everyone deserves the right to freedom, choice and happiness. In the face of national crisis, in this case Greece, not everyone gets those rights, and its people goes down with the ship. There is truth in its biting cynicism and just like its title, it promises a turbulent ride. Unfortunately it suffers from an unnecessarily shuffled structure. The main timeline is confusing, but presumed the day that Maria fulfils the fantasy of someone who's in trouble and manages to run away from her family, country and problems.The rest of it flashes to when she first meets her husband (who she has to endure a long distance relationship with) to when its revealed that her mother hasn't paid taxes for her business and their family has to pay the price. Too often does the film appear to cut to a flashback for no good reason and the film feels muddled for it. Granted, it does conjure the stressed emotions it wants and show the stages of life, but it's plagued by scenes of contrivances and lapses of irrationality. It's bolstered by strong performances, particularly from its leading lady Angeliki Papoulia coupled with great intimate but wide cinematography. A Blast does what it says on the tin to convey the damage of financial crisis but at the cost of severe untidiness.7/10Read more @ The Awards Circuit (http://www.awardscircuit.com/)