The cinematography in this film is gorgeous, but much like Fireworks that's where the movie stops delivering. from swirls of breathtaking colors in a sunset to a camera angle that looks from the ground to the sky as rain falls toward the viewer, you can tell that the director had many great visual ideas and then hastily threw together a story around them, always being sure to include every pretty establishing shot. It's almost as if a canopy of impressive animation, interesting camera angles, and dynamic lighting are being held up by a couple of flimsy 2x4's in the form of underdeveloped and/or superfluous characters, (Takao's mother didn't have to be in the film for one and only one 15 second scene) a flimsy storyline, and an ending with bizarre dialog which makes you feel as though a rug was pulled out from under you or maybe your dvd skipped because it was dirty. This scene in question comes in the form of verbose verbal vitriol spewed from one character to another undeserving one that not only does it make you uncomfortable in your seat, but it makes you lose empathy for this character that you spent the whole movie relating to! I feel that this film could have benefitted from more time at the typewriter on the part of the director, or to slim this down to a short film possibly with no dialog a la The Red Turtle.
Review of The Garden of Words
