Indiewire placed Hou Hsiao-hsien‘s “Flight Of The Red Balloon” homage (to the children’s classic short, “The Red Balloon”) as their number one film of the year based on a poll of 100 film critics.
We were a bit surprised so we raced out Christmas eve to rent it, catch up (we missed it earlier this year) and see what the fuss was about. Frankly, we were really excited, perhaps this was a gem that we had missed and a diamond in the rough around Xmas is always a nice cinematic treat.
Now, we’re not going to discount these critics, but we’re pretty sure we know the way these polls work. 100 people submit a top 10 list and the film that gets mentioned the most essentially takes the number 1 spot which is fine, but in this case, we think a weighted poll system might have been better suited.
We liked, ‘Balloon,’ its a sweet, tender, aesthetically pleasing and thoughtful film, but it’s also a tad ponderous and really goes nowhere. There’s a lot of threads picked up that never really say much of go anywhere. This updated version has Juliette Binoche as a single mother, Simon Iteanu as her quiet and very cute little boy and Fang Song as the boy’s new caretaker who’s also a film maker who’s making a little film homage to the ‘Red Balloon.’ Binoche is voice puppeteer, she has to deal with her indigent downstairs neighbor who’s decided to stop paying rent and her absent husband who’s decided to leave the family for two years to go write a book in Montreal, but these are the most “conflicts” you’ll see.
‘Red Balloon’ is pretty and soft, but it’s pacing, rhythm and “plot” is kind of like a cloud in the sky that drifts by. It’s ultimately very ephemeral. It’s nice to admire and you can get momentarily lost in its beauty, but it’s not really something that’s going to linger or carry much weight to it in the long run. [B-]