Picture Claire (3 Stars)

This is an unusual crime thriller made in 2001 starring Juliette Lewis and Gina Gershon. I say unusual, because so many random coincidences are used to advance the plot. I don't necessarily dislike the use of coincidences in films, but this film has far too many.

Claire is a young woman who lives in Montreal. She helps the police by telling them about drug deals going on locally. Good for her! More people should help fight drugs. Unfortunately, there are consequences. The dealers set her apartment on fire. She decides to run as far away as she can. A few months earlier she met a photographer called Billy Stuart. She posed for him, and they became lovers, for a short time at least. When he returned to Toronto he asked her to accompany him, but she refused. She spoke no English, so Toronto would be like a foreign country to her.

Having nowhere else to go, she travels to Toronto. Billy isn't at home, so she goes to a donut shop two doors away. She gets into an argument with a man called Eddie, because he's unwilling to give help to someone who can't even speak English. She goes to the toilet, and while she's out of the room the man's ex-wife Lily comes in and strangles him to death. Claire leaves, not even seeing the dead body on the floor, but the donut shop's owner describes Claire to the police as the probable murderer.

So far so good. Claire returns to Billy's apartment and picks the lock to get in. She finds out that Billy is living with someone new. Sorry, Claire, it was your own fault for not joining him in Toronto when you had the chance. Billy comes home with his new girlfriend, so Claire climbs down from the balcony to the apartment below, which just happens to be the apartment where the real murderer lives.

The motive for the murder? Eddie was a jewel thief. He had diamonds that he didn't want to share with his fellow gang members. Lily took the diamonds after killing Eddie. But while in Lily's apartment, Claire took Lily's purse with the diamonds.

So the police are looking for Claire. The jewel thieves are looking for Lily. Lily is looking for Claire. Claire is stumbling round Toronto, with no idea why everyone is chasing her.

Just one more coincidence. Claire lost her shoes while climbing from the balcony, so she visits a pawn shop which has shoes in the window. The pawn shop owner is also a fence. The jewel thieves suspect him of having the diamonds, so they've killed him. Claire walks in and finds a dead body. She keeps getting deeper into trouble.

There are many other details, but I'll stop there. The film has a lot in its favour, such as the atmosphere and the good acting, but the plot is too unfeasible.

The film has unusual cinematography. At dramatic moments the picture breaks up into multiple frames. Some of them are different events, the present mixed with flash backs, while others are different angles of the same event or a single picture broken up into frames. I made 60 snapshots in a two-minute sequence to show how the frames develop, but it would be a bad idea to include them all here. It would give too much attention to a film that doesn't deserve it. The three screenshots below are representative.

It's an interesting film, but too adventurous for its own good. I enjoy the experimental cinematography, but the plot relies too heavily on coincidences.

The film is out of print in America, but it's available on Amazon Prime. It's still available on Blu-ray in Germany, but the plot description has so many errors that I wonder if the person who wrote it even watched the film. It says that Claire comes from a small town. Bong! Montreal is small? It says that she doesn't have Billy's address. Bong! She knows exactly where he lives. It says she comes under the power of the gangster Eddie. Bong! She only speaks to him for a few seconds. It says the gangsters are chasing Claire. Bong! They're chasing Lily, but Claire accidentally gets in the way.