Undescribable Perfection

This story has more twists and turns than a second-rate soap opera.

It's funny, it's tense, it features two great performances from two actors and the director expertly creates a web of odd tension where you actually don't know what is happening for the majority of the run time.

By the time the dramatic fireworks start popping off, each one feels earned.

Imagine that you forgot what you were doing an hour ago. You don't remember your name. You don't know if you have friends or family. All you know is you're hungry and you should find a place to spend the night. This is the setting for Embers, a movie that explores human behavior and how it is influenced by our memories. We see a couple that tries to stay together. A kid that wanders the world aimlessly. A frustrated young man that has forgotten how to control his emotions. And then there's the young girl surviving in a bunker. She is unaffected and still has her memories, but her life in the bunker might be just as pointless as a life without memory. Some of the many story lines are connected, but don't expect anything big to happen. The power lies in the concept and the emotions that the characters portray. Enjoy this movie and remember to hold your memories dear.

people keep talking about sci-fi this and that. try just looking at the film with clear eyes and mind. try letting go of labels for a change.this film is a magnificent piece of art. very simple moments and premises invoke many important subjects that rule human life - our dreams, fears, desires, instinctive urges and quests.the fragility caused by the disease is just a little more debilitating than our own social and cultural weaknesses (we are destroying our own habitats, food and water supplies with the same amount of surrealness as waking up and not remembering our beloved ones) - but because it differs from the type of madness we are accustomed to, it strikes us more powerfully.also, someone who lives with its eyes opened - to all the alternative realities and possibilities of interpreting the world - will be able to see very subtle and beautiful metaphysical illustrations - things that spiritual laws would define as fate, destiny, karma, magnetism, etc, and that science would ( or will one day) define in other ways.the actors are amazing - especially the guy, girl and chaos - and their presences always generate strong emotions and possibilities. people complain that the movie leads nowhere - it seems like people are no longer satisfied with the possibilities that our imagination can create - through the film, thanks to the film - and all the feelings and images that magically stay in our memories after watching a film. technology and morbid comfort keep turning people into pieces of meat that just expect everything to fall on their laps (this applies to books, music, relationships, etc) and when art does not supply that, in an easy way, they are assaulted by a i-want-my-money- back kind of feeling that just turns to rage against the work of art.thank you, all of you involved in the making of this film, for the visions and dreams that you shared, and for helping keep the flame alive - i also create (or something creates through me) and i will pass it on, somehow."Salomon saith, There is no new thing upon the earth. So that as Plato had an imagination, that all knowledge was but remembrance; so Salomon giveth his sentence, that all novelty is but oblivion."

While Embers' story is not completely original (Memento did it first) it blows up this idea to a much larger scale but it isn't nearly as intriguing or thought-provoking as it should have been. The plot of Embers is the reason I watched the movie in the first place. The idea of short-term amnesia spread across a population sounded very interesting and brimming with possibilities. This movie could have been awesome had it focused on the social possibilities and scenarios regarding the situation, rather than following a few uninteresting characters wander around while mumbling philosophies. The thing is though, these characters don't even relate to one another. They never meet each other or interact whatsoever. The characters are never placed in any interesting scenarios either so what is the point really? The characters are never developed and the idea of world-wide amnesia is never built upon, so at the end, what really even happened? Well... nothing really. Embers builds up to literally nothing. The only part of the story that is even remotely interesting is a couple trying to maintain a relationship despite them forgetting each other every time they wake up. Every morning they have to re-learn who they both are and this portion of the story is actually fantastic. It feels realistic and understandable. I would've much rather had the movie revolve around this story, but this is only a portion of the film's plot. The rest is boring, dull, preachy and extremely pretentious. Instead of following the entertaining part of the story we follow a crazy man who runs around and attempts to rape women, a little kid who says nothing and displays no emotion, and a family in their underground safety bunker. I honestly wouldn't be surprised if I forgot another major character entirely because that is just how dull and uninteresting these other characters are.Embers was a very frustrating viewing experience because I so desperately wanted something interesting to happen within the story, but as the run time ticked down, I realized that this movie is going nowhere and will end up nowhere.It did look technically okay, but we only see the aftermath of this apocalypse on a small scale so it was kind of hard to be immersed within the environment even if the few destroyed buildings did look realistic.Embers is a film that tries so hard to be so much more than it needs to be. It had an interesting premise that held some amazing possibilities but instead this idea is wasted on a preachy and pretentious plot that goes nowhere. Only about 30 minutes of Embers are enjoyable but after that part of the story concludes, we are forced to sit through the extremely dull side-stories that share no relation to each other. Embers left me feeling more than unsatisfied. I was thoroughly frustrated that better concepts and scenarios weren't explored within this idea. Instead Embers gives me an experience that I wish I could forget as easily as the characters within the story.

After a global neurological epidemic, those who remain search for meaning and connection in a world without memory.On its surface, "Embers" is a very simple movie. We have a series of people who have lost their memory to varying degrees. Some can remember for a day, some only minutes. A few seem to be able to push the limits a little bit further. Good science fiction is taking reality as we know it, and pushing the edges out just a bit to what is not yet actual, but possible. And "Embers" succeeds in that endeavor.Writer-director Claire Carre was fully aware of the importance of keeping the infection idea grounded in reality. "I did a ton of research, looking at different neurological case studies, and specially looking at the lives of people with amnesia… The characters in the film suffer from symptoms similar to the type of brain damage you might get from viral encephalitis." Thus, what we see in "Embers" is entirely possible, as unlikely as it might be that amnesia would occur on a (presumably) global scale.Whether intentional or not, the film evokes the idea of location as a character in its own right. The filmmakers went out of their way to find just the right settings: an abandoned church in Gary, Indiana and an underground bunker in Poland are two prominent examples. The bunker shown in the film is not a set, but was built as part of the Nazi line of defense during WWII. The spiral staircase scene is real: the stairs run ten stories deep with over twenty miles of underground tunnels to explore. The locations serve as characters because they tell as much of the story – perhaps more – than the humans, showing how much the world has fallen into decay.Within the simple plot structure, we are left to find subtle messages on our own. At least two dichotomies are evident: Hope versus Chaos, and Freedom versus Safety. Freedom versus Safety is a bit more obvious, as the character of Miranda and her father have a discussion touching on these themes. After years of isolation, she longs to be free, to search for her mother or just to see new surroundings. Her father, perhaps wiser, tries to explain how she is the safest she could ever be: one step outside, and she risks falling victim just like everyone else. So which is the right way to live: alone and safe, or free and struggling? The character of Chaos is in the form of a man, but could just as easily be a metaphor for chaos in general. The world, left to its own devices, will inevitably decay and turn to dust. He is part of that process, just working at an accelerated rate, killing and smashing as he plows through life like a hurricane. Countering him is Boy, who stands as a metaphor for hope. Just as Chaos wanders, so does Boy, and we get the impression that maybe, possibly, he has not been affected by the virus. Because he is mute we can never fully gauge his memory, but he seems to comprehend the passing of days better than anyone else. If there are more Boys (and Girls) in the world, it may not decay and chaos may not reign after all. This one character (Boy) inverts the whole narrative from a tragic, depressing tale into one of hope."Embers" is a complicated film disguised as a simple one. For anyone who wants to see a film about a glimmer of hope in a world at its lowest, this is the film for you. "Embers" premieres July 22 at the Fantasia International Film Festival.