The Sporadic Chronicles

“I’m twelve. But I’ve been twelve for a long time.”
– Eli

SYNOPSIS: Oskar, an overlooked and bullied boy, finds love and revenge through Eli, a beautiful but peculiar girl. – via IMDB

So, after all this time, it has finally happened. I got off my butt and watched a movie that has been recommended to me about fifty million times without fail, one that I will always “get to” but never have. No more, folks, the time had come to rectify that! I must say, I enjoyed this movie. It was slow, dark, took its time going places, didn’t rush too much, and focused a lot on Oskar, and the strange relationship that builds between him and Eli. It’s actually disturbing, but handled so well. The movie is littered with a lot of really beautiful but desolate shots, but it fits with the movie and makes it really pretty to look at, and gives off such a lonely, cold feeling. The movie also handles violence in such an understated manner, which was weird, but totally worked for this. Oskar was a really sad kid, and the bullying he suffered was awful. To watch how the other boys were bullied into bullying Oskar, too, gives that a whole different angle. It was horrible to watch, but to see Oskar gain some hope and fight back was also endearing. The film is rather haunting, and takes a look at how people form connections, and how deeply those connections can run. I found almost all of the supporting characters to be really flat and bland though, meaning that the impact of the relationship between these kids cannot always be see. While I really enjoyed this movie, and will surely watch it again, I was not super in love with it. Maybe because it has been hyped up for so many years, I expected more. That being said, I really did like it, don’t get me wrong. It was captivating, mesmerising and haunting, and well worth finally having checked out. Next on my list is to read the book (at some point – I also have a huge to read list) and fill in missing parts of the story, and clarifying other things.