Film Description
| THE TRACEY FRAGMENTS | ||
| Director: | Bruce McDonald |  |
| Country: | Canada | |
| Year: | 2007 | |
| Language: | English | |
| Time: | 77 minutes | |
| Rating: | 14A | |
| Principal Cast: | Ellen Page, Ari Cohen, Max McCabe-Lokos, Max Turnbull, Julian Richings, Zie Souwand, Slim Twig | |
| Trailer: | View the trailer for this film | |
| SCREENING TIMES | |||
| Thursday, May 22, 2008 | 7:00 PM | Art Gallery of Windsor | Tickets $10 at |
Presented almost entirely in split-screen frames, Bruce McDonald’s audacious The Tracey Fragments has received considerable praise for its startling and innovative visual design. But it is far from being merely a technical tour de force. In fact, the film’s exploration and evocation of a teenaged girl’s mindset may represent the best foray into the troubled-teen sub-genre in recent memory.
Traumatized by the disappearance of her younger brother Sonny (Zie Souwand), social outcast Tracey (Ellen Page) leaves her small town for the bright lights of Winnipeg. Alone and broke, she wanders the streets, encountering other, more wizened outsiders and, every once in a while, out of the corner of her eye, catching a glimpse of someone who may be her missing brother.
McDonald and his collaborators shuttle tones wildly as Tracey struggles to deal with events, reflecting the vertiginous nature of her moods. They move from schoolgirl fantasies about punky Billy Zero (Slim Twig), to quasi-surreal encounters with her remote, ineffective shrink and her near-catatonic parents (they seem to have crawled out of an Edgar Ulmer noir, by way of Aki Kaurismäki), to frenzied accounts of high-school persecution.
The voice-over narration, scripted by author Maureen Medved, is astonishingly precise in its evocation of a teenager’s speaking patterns and mindset, right down to Tracey’s liberal use of obscenities, which oscillate between shocking and endearingly childish. McDonald’s use of split screen is consistently compelling. Many filmmakers have attempted to use this device, but most have only dared to do so sparingly – as if they didn’t entirely trust it. McDonald pushes things much further, virtually tearing the screen apart in an effort to capture Tracey’s headspace.
Perhaps the most impressive aspect of the film, though, is Page, who is extraordinary as Tracey. She has emerged as one of the most promising actors in Canadian cinema, and here she delivers on that promise, carrying the weight of the film and creating a character who is simultaneously infuriating and touching. The Tracey Fragments is an unforgettable, daring glimpse into a traumatized consciousness.
Steve Gravestock – 2007 Toronto International Film Festival Group
