The Many Strange Stories of Triangle Woman (2008) - By Duane L. Martin

Film Reviews: The Many Strange Stories of Triangle Woman (2008) - By Duane L. Martin
Posted on Friday, May 01, 2009 @ 15:14:11 Mountain Daylight Time by Duane

The Many Strange Stories of Triangle Woman is a film by director Chris Rentzel that centers around a highly eccentric (if not flat out insane) woman and the ten strange stories she has to tell. There are too many stories to get into all of them here, but suffice it to say that they range from the bizarre to the amusing. Some of them make sense, some don't. Some take themselves more seriously than others, but all are strange. None of the stories are related, but the one common thread throughout the movie is that the eccentric "Triangle Woman" keeps appearing here and there and talking about them.

Vivian Jimenez Hall plays Triangle Woman, and from the very first scene leaves you with a, "what the hell?" look on your face. Yes, the character is that bizarre, and she plays it quite well. There's something stiff about her performance and line delivery, which in most cases would be detrimental, but in this instance, it only seemed to add to how strange she was. One thing she does that I found rather bizarre at first is that every time she answers her cell phone, she answers it, "Hello, I'm fine." Sounds stupid doesn't it? I thought so too, but then it hit me. The question most people ask you first is, "How are you?", so actually by saying, "Hello, I'm fine," she's saving time. That was such a minor thing, but it was very creative and somewhat amusing. This film is full of little amusing things, but unfortunately, it's also full of things that aren't all that amusing. Therein lies the problem.

Any time you do a movie that encompasses a variety of short bits connected by a common thread, you're inevitably going to end up with some bits that are far better than others. This film was no exception. Some of the stories were no nonsensical as to be a near complete waste of time as they were only bizarre for the sake of being bizarre and had no real substance or story to them. Other stories, like the man with the purple finger, seemed to be a lot more thought out and more coherently bizarre. Tze Yep played the man with the purple finger, and I thought that of all the performances in the film, his was by far the best. Basically, the story is about a guy whose finger turns purple and his efforts to get someone to help him. The story is strange and yet follows an understandable path. Then you have other bits like the one about the nice woman at the cabin or the interview at the law firm that make absolutely no sense at all and again, are just strange for the sake of being strange. The segments like that tended to leave me feeling empty, while the ones like the crazy guy who took out people's voice boxes just to record their gurgles after and the man with the purple finger had a lot more substance to them and were actually pretty cool. Essentially what I'm saying is, the stories in this film are a mixed bag. Some are good...some aren't.

This film has a large cast, which was pretty much inescapable considering it encompasses ten distinct stories. Most of the cast did a good job with their roles. Some seemed more amateurish while others seemed more professional. The cast was far too large to get into specifics other than the couple of notable performances I already mentioned, but pretty much everyone ranged from passable to quite good in the quality of their acting.

Technically the film was well made. The audio was in most instances recorded well, the editing, while at times a bit strange, stayed coherent for the most part and moved the film along at a decent pace, which is no small achievement when you have to get through ten stories without leaving the viewer feeling like everything's dragging. The lighting and camera work were both quite good as well and visually the film was quite nice throughout. The one thing that was highly inconsistent though was the selection of the music for the film. Some of it was great, and some of it was really, really lame. There really wasn't any rhyme or reason to the musical choices, which I personally feel hurt the film in some ways.

So that brings us down to the final question. Can I recommend this film? Honestly, I don't know how to answer that. I guess the best thing I could say in relation to any sort of a recommendation is this. Was it worth watching? Sure, it wasn't too bad and at times was even kind of amusing and cool. Would I watch it again? No, I most likely will never watch this film again, nor do I think that in general it's more than a one time watcher.

If you'd like to find out more about this film, you can check out the film's website at http://www.trianglewomanmovie.com. The DVD of the film as well as the soundtrack are available for sale through the website if you'd like to pick up a copy of either.