Love (2005)

Director:

Vladan Nikolic

Writer:

Vladan Nikolic (writer)

Genre:

Drama | Thriller

Plot:

Told through a looping, non-linear narrative from each of the characters' points of view, the film reconstructs the stories of a Yugoslav hit man, his former lover and her police officer boyfriend, as their paths cross in New York.

Plot Keywords:

New York | Hotel | Hitman | Policeman | Police Officer

Awards:

2 wins

Cast

Sergej Trifunovic	...	Vanya Nevakovich
Geno Lechner	...	Anna Petrovic
Peter Gevisser	...	Dirk Malloy
Didier Flamand	...	Jean Mitnick Rochand
Mario Padula	...	Emanuel 'Manny' LaPalma
Al Nazemian	...	Ali Mabuz (as Al Naz)
Eric Frandsen	...	Agent William Hayes
Liat Glick	...	Faye LeGrande
Kerry Rossi	...	Mina Gordon
Vija Vetra	...	Helen
Mariano Mederos	...	Rivera / Gomez
Mark Perez	...	Bodyguard
Howell Seth Mayer	...	Middle Aged Man
Renata Darlen	...	Young Woman
Eugenio Arias	...	Receptionist

Runtime:

USA:90 min

Country:

USA | Serbia and Montenegro

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Sound Mix:

Stereo (Western Electric Sound System)

Certification:

Australia:MA | New Zealand:R16

Filming Locations:

New York City, New York, USA

Company:

Thoke Moebius Film Company

Quotes:

Dirk Malloy: As his country disappeared, so did he - Vanya became an invisible man.

Nifty Little Thriller that Brings Together the Haunted Victims of Violence Around the World to NYC

"Love" is an intriguing little thriller that crosses the roundelay storytelling technique of "Amores Perros" with the noir of the hit man doing one last job genre.

Shot all in New York City (diverse locales in Brooklyn and Queens, even though one scene is oddly identified as being on the Lower East Side), writer/director Vladan Nikolic connects people who have all come to New York to either reinvent or lose themselves. Mostly they are emigrants from strife-torn home countries around the world, but even the sole native is transplanted from Chicago. While they could live peacefully here, they bring violent baggage with them.

Each of the multi-ethnic characters is surrounded by irony, as each time a scene rewinds from another's perspective we find that the characters are not in fact what the other(s) perceive them to be, despite the actions that brought them to intersect.

The actors are quite appealing, as couples come together and fall apart, even as the titular emotion becomes a primary motivator for a range of activities from passion to revenge to self-sacrifice to robbery to murder. The haunted hit man (Sergej Trifunovic) at the center of the story has more depth than usual for such a character, as he becomes a symbol for the detritus of the war that tore apart the former Yugoslavia (and he does seem to find crumbling buildings that look like war ruins). The women are similarly haunted, particularly the world weary Geno Lechner, though one who starts out as a low rent Mata Hari just turns into a shrieking ex. Even the cop is not a stereotype, but as played by Peter Gevisser quite sweet. I did at first get a few characters confused, what with two gray-haired, heavy set guys with guns and two brunettes.

The voice-over narration at first seems out of florid 1940's pulp fiction, but is satisfyingly explained as the story comes full circle.

While the film is all in English, some of the dialog is in heavy accents that were a bit hard to understand to American ears, or it could have been the sound system at the tiny Two Boots Pioneer Theater where I saw it, along with some folks who were evidently listed in the credits as extras. I had tried to see it at the Tribeca Film Festival but hadn't been able to get in.

I appreciated the concept of the score by Standing in Lines to segue from street sounds like sirens to electronica, but it was extremely annoying to the ears, with the exception of effective covers of ethnic tunes.