This acting tour de force is joyless. Nor is it entirely art-house, although quite close to it.
The story recounts a day in the life of protagonist Leo (Javier Bardem), a divorced, lonely man living by himself in a dumpy part of Brooklyn. The plot, summed up in his daughter Molly's (Elle Fanning) words, "We visited the dentist, the stupid optometrist, with a minor detour to emergency when you hit your head". Accompanied by his devoted daughter, Leo moves through things happening around him and to him as if he is walking in a perpetual trance. Twice during the day, we hear people questioning if he is really there, first his divorced wife (Laura Linney) at the emergency ward, then later the optometrist. At the end, returning his desolate apartment, even Molly asks "Where have you been, dad?"
It is easy (and lazy) to attribute Leo's conditions to dementia, but clearly there is more. The title "The roads not taken" proclaims as much. Imbedded in Leo's simple day's existence are two parallel existences in his mind. Before getting to that, however, here's the life story of Leo, pieced together through various dialogues throughout the movie.
A Mexican by birth, he came to New York (possibly illegally initially) and made a reasonable living as a writer. When still in Mexico, he had a passionate love affair with Dolores (Salma Hayek, NOT Evan Rachel Wood), but the pair was a "co- dependence disaster". In New York he married Rita (Laura Linney), had Molly, and soon deserted his family to go to Greece to write. Missing the little girl, he soon came back. But as the couple's fortune in their respective careers headed in opposite directions, the marriage ended in divorce and Rita got married again. As Leo sinks lower and lower, Rita remains a friend and Molly is absolutely devoted.
The movie, however, was nowhere near to unfolding in clear linear narrative. What it looks like I would call "video snapshots" (oxymoron, I know). Anchoring on the reality of a day during which Molly struggles to chaperon her father through ordinary stuff (dental appointment, eye examination visit, plus a few other chores) the scenes jump all over the map (quite literally) with visions in Leo's mind, some memories, some hallucination.
The Mexico montages on the stormy relationship with Dolores are probably mostly true memories. There are also some scanty, almost surreal references to losing a son he had with her in accident. The effect of the trauma may even be the cause of his mental condition today.
The other series of montages, imaginary, show him staying in Greece pursuing his writing. The key "event" in this segment is his conversation with a young tourist, telling her that she reminds him of his daughter.
Rita's appearance is in the real world, present-day. Successful, pragmatic and cheerful, she rushes to the hospital in answering to Molly's call to see how she can help.
The focus of the movie is the father-and-daughter story. Unfortunately, there is almost nothing to shed any light on the emotional dependence of the father and the utter devotion of the daughter. Fortunately, the riveting performance of Fanning and Barden is sufficient to carry the movie. Hayek and Linney are good too but neither has been given any screen time to speak of.
As this is my first experience with the work of auteur director Sally Potter, I should wisely refrain from commenting.
Review of The Roads Not Taken
