'The Congress' - Movie Review

The first half hour of the movie concentrates heavily on battering Robin Wright (played by Robin Wright) for her inconsistency, her refusal to take parts or do what's expected of her - the point being that she has no options, and if she wants to make any money at all, she has to take the contract in front of her. The script has the subtlety of a sledgehammer, and I very nearly quit because it was so godawful - Wright managed to wring a bit of substance out of the terrible material, but Harvey Keitel (as, we are made to understand, her long-suffering agent) wasn't trying very hard at all.

But after Robin signs over the rights to, well, HER (her digital image, her right to act, everything), the movie jumps forward 20 years to the Future Congress. Which is ... animated. Everyone is what they want to be - and everything and nothing is valid. From that point on, the movie is pure psychedelia - and makes little more sense than that suggests. If you can stomach the first half hour, the remaining 90 minutes is ... more interesting. I'm not sure it's better, just weirder.

I watched this because a friend recommended it, and that combined with my respect for Ari Folman and his previous movie "Waltz With Bashir" kept me watching even after the poorly done introduction.

"The events, characters and firms depicted in this photoplay are fictitious. Any similarity to actual persons, living or dead, or to actual events or firms is purely coincidental." We see this so often at the end of movies that most of us don't think about it at all. I hadn't thought about it in a long time, not until I saw this movie: this movie, starring Robin Wright playing a character called "Robin Wright" who played "Princess Buttercup" in a movie called "The Princess Bride." The disclaimer seems more than a little inaccurate as Robin Wright is definitely real. (Or is she? I'VE never met her. Maybe Hollywood is an illusion in my mind ...)