The plot of 'The Tracey Fragments' involves a girl named Tracey Burkowitz running away from home in search of her younger brother, who appears to be lost. The story is told in non-chronological order while separate segments eluding to the scenes of the film appear on screen to give the viewer a somewhat disjointed and fragmented narrative in order to allow us to better understand the mind of Tracey. Try to imagine Todd Solondz's 'Welcome to the Dollhouse' crossed with the look of a Lars Von Trier film with a script similar to the style of Harmony Korine's 'julien donkey-boy' and edited like a Peter Greenaway film made in the 90s and onward. I'd say 'The Tracey Fragments' is about what the end result of that is, but without all the blood, guts, torture, and grotesque sexual content. The style works, but it is not without a couple of serious flaws.
For starters, the film does not have a strong opening. Instead of quickly establishing what the film is about or setting any kind of tone or mood, it just drops us into the middle of the story without any sort of indication of what is going on. For the first fifteen to twenty minutes of the film, what is depicted is basically just a bunch of stuff happening. The audience feels immediately disconnected from the film and the result is extremely frustrating. It was so frustrating for me when I first watched it that I had to keep shutting the film off over and over. It took me four separate times to be able to make it past the opening.
I'm not sure how most people would be able to handle the way the film opens. Honestly, it's not a narrative problem, it's an editing problem. I felt that Canadian director Bruce Mcdonald, who I think it very talented by the way, should have looked for a stronger way for his audience to digest the style. The style to which this is filmed in can easily be made gimmicky if not handled properly, and for the opening of this film it is not handled properly. Most viewers, if they are not really open-minded, will either leave the theater/room, or they will completely tune out of the film and will not even pay attention when the film's actual narrative comes into play.
Once the film does pick up, things move much more smoothly. We are able to understand the plight of the Tracey Burkowitz and we feel for her. We watch her get bullied around at school, we witness her disturbing family situation, and we get to like her. We understand that she is a naive girl who has a tendency to get in way over her head in things and we understand how her warped psyche affects and damages her ability to function normally to the people around her. These particular moments are when the editing style really helps lend itself to the plot and the character.
The editing technique comes off spectacularly well at times and helps to also create a strong sense of paranoia and unpredictability in the plot through it's depiction of warped perspective. There are some truly haunting scenes such as the scene in which her drunk father tells her, as a young little girl, the story of how they found her younger brother in Alaska. I found many of these moments to be quite touching and all too effective particularly one in which Tracey receives a necklace from her brother on her birthday.
The performance of Ellen Page is also incredibly realistic. Ellen Page has played the role of the creepy teenage girl four times now(Hard Candy, The Tracey Fragments, Juno, and Smart People), and each time it's a completely different character and each time she really is able to lend a lot of personality and depth to the character. I've always been impressed with her performances. Her character here is realistic and, at times, frightening in her naive nature. She has the perfect amount of weird awkwardness that the role requires of her character.
I did, however, still have problems. I wasn't fond of the rest of the characters in this film. I understand that with this film's style and with a 77 minute runtime that there isn't exactly much room for character development, but I would have liked it if even one of the characters did something unexpected. As a result of this the film gets intensely predictable when it really shouldn't be. I like it when these kinds of films have more realism to them, but this film takes the character stereotypes of an almost sickening extreme, such as the scene where she has to hide from a thug behind a curtain. I saw the outcome of that scene coming within minutes. So because of all this, the characters surrounding Tracey are all cartoon characters practically and the film feels cold and far too simplistic than it really is.
Despite the slow start and the one-dimensional characters, I still recommend 'The Tracey Fragments'. Ellen Page's performance is powerful, the style of the films comes off strong, and there are enough strong moments throughout that make the film worth seeing. It's certainly not anywhere near as bad as most people seem to be saying. There's more than enough worthwhile material here to make the film work. The film is short, effective, and to the point. It's a very powerful little film that I quite enjoyed. That's about all I can about my feelings toward it.
For starters, the film does not have a strong opening. Instead of quickly establishing what the film is about or setting any kind of tone or mood, it just drops us into the middle of the story without any sort of indication of what is going on. For the first fifteen to twenty minutes of the film, what is depicted is basically just a bunch of stuff happening. The audience feels immediately disconnected from the film and the result is extremely frustrating. It was so frustrating for me when I first watched it that I had to keep shutting the film off over and over. It took me four separate times to be able to make it past the opening.
I'm not sure how most people would be able to handle the way the film opens. Honestly, it's not a narrative problem, it's an editing problem. I felt that Canadian director Bruce Mcdonald, who I think it very talented by the way, should have looked for a stronger way for his audience to digest the style. The style to which this is filmed in can easily be made gimmicky if not handled properly, and for the opening of this film it is not handled properly. Most viewers, if they are not really open-minded, will either leave the theater/room, or they will completely tune out of the film and will not even pay attention when the film's actual narrative comes into play.
Once the film does pick up, things move much more smoothly. We are able to understand the plight of the Tracey Burkowitz and we feel for her. We watch her get bullied around at school, we witness her disturbing family situation, and we get to like her. We understand that she is a naive girl who has a tendency to get in way over her head in things and we understand how her warped psyche affects and damages her ability to function normally to the people around her. These particular moments are when the editing style really helps lend itself to the plot and the character.
The editing technique comes off spectacularly well at times and helps to also create a strong sense of paranoia and unpredictability in the plot through it's depiction of warped perspective. There are some truly haunting scenes such as the scene in which her drunk father tells her, as a young little girl, the story of how they found her younger brother in Alaska. I found many of these moments to be quite touching and all too effective particularly one in which Tracey receives a necklace from her brother on her birthday.
The performance of Ellen Page is also incredibly realistic. Ellen Page has played the role of the creepy teenage girl four times now(Hard Candy, The Tracey Fragments, Juno, and Smart People), and each time it's a completely different character and each time she really is able to lend a lot of personality and depth to the character. I've always been impressed with her performances. Her character here is realistic and, at times, frightening in her naive nature. She has the perfect amount of weird awkwardness that the role requires of her character.
I did, however, still have problems. I wasn't fond of the rest of the characters in this film. I understand that with this film's style and with a 77 minute runtime that there isn't exactly much room for character development, but I would have liked it if even one of the characters did something unexpected. As a result of this the film gets intensely predictable when it really shouldn't be. I like it when these kinds of films have more realism to them, but this film takes the character stereotypes of an almost sickening extreme, such as the scene where she has to hide from a thug behind a curtain. I saw the outcome of that scene coming within minutes. So because of all this, the characters surrounding Tracey are all cartoon characters practically and the film feels cold and far too simplistic than it really is.
Despite the slow start and the one-dimensional characters, I still recommend 'The Tracey Fragments'. Ellen Page's performance is powerful, the style of the films comes off strong, and there are enough strong moments throughout that make the film worth seeing. It's certainly not anywhere near as bad as most people seem to be saying. There's more than enough worthwhile material here to make the film work. The film is short, effective, and to the point. It's a very powerful little film that I quite enjoyed. That's about all I can about my feelings toward it.