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 FABLED (Indican
Pictures) 2002. Suspense. 84 minutes. Not rated. A few, brief moments
of violence. Joseph
just broke up with his girlfriend. His
psychiatrist is prescribing more and more drugs to battle his 'condition.'
He knows his girlfriend is sleeping with his psychiatrist.
His co-workers are plotting against him and, to make matters worse,
there are monsters after him. His
only friend is Alex and they are bonded together by something horrible
they have done.
Fabled
concerns a man by the name of Joseph Fable, who is no
longer on the edge. He has
plunged headfirst into the abyss long ago.
A lot of what we get is filtered through Joseph, so even we don't
know what to make of the whole thing.
I will give Desmond Askew credit in his portrayal of a man who has
gone round the bend. He makes
crazy look damned easy. I
thought it was a nice touch that he is the only character in the film with
a British accent. It takes the
alienation that he feels and makes it more intense.
Not only is he alone with his feelings, but he is from another
place. Nice touch.
The film depends on many repeated scenes.
If you were to take out all the repeats you would probably have an
hour's worth of film. I don't
mind repetition to carry a story along.
In the case of Fabled, I felt it was a little too much. I give
credit to first time director Ari Kirschenbaum.
The film looks fabulous and he got picture perfect performances
from his actors. There are
only two things that I think detract from the film.
The first is the parallel fairytale concerning a wolf and a raven.
Sure, you could try and line up some sort of analogy of who was who
in comparison to the two stories. Why
bother when the one on the screen is so compelling?
The second is the end of the film.
Without giving anything away, the end of the film does not work.
These two weak points make FABLED a film that I really can't, in
good faith, recommend. It will
just make people angry in the end and not in a good way. - Douglas A.
Waltz
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