The Tracey Fragments Review
by tom elce (dr-pepperite AT hotmail DOT com)May 8th, 2008
The Tracey Fragments (2008)
Rating: 5 / 5
Reviewed by Tom Elce
Director: Bruce McDonald
Cast: Ellen Page, Max McCabe-Lokos, Ari Cohen, Erin McMurtry, Zie Souwand, SlimTwig, Julian Richings
MPAA Rating: NR
BBFC Rating: NR
A staggering, visionary work of cinematic art presenting the most fascinating and complex study of a disillusioned teen since 2001's instant-classic Donnie Darko, The Tracey Fragments is the best film I've had the privilege to see perhaps since the aforementioned film played out before my eyes. Extraordinary in it's every meticulously orchestrated frame (which are, in actuality, several frames fragmented into a single one), Bruce McDonald's film is a flooring film to experience, hitting viewers with a mixture - an intentionally all-over- the-place one - of emotions and feelings experienced by a teenage girl not comfortable in her own skin, reminded of her flaws by everyone around her and growing increasingly apathetic in spite of her youth. It is every bit tragic, uplifting, perplexing, enlightening, intelligent, unpredictable and, most refreshing of all, unique. What we are looking at is the year's very first unadulterated masterpiece.
In a filmography packed full of exemplary performances, Ellen Page follows up her previous performances (the most recent of which, for Juno, was Oscar-nominated) with her best to date. Here she plays Tracey Berkowitz, who begins the movie sitting in the back of a bus, naked and wrapped in a shower curtain. She is looking for her brother Sonny (Zie Souwand), who has gone missing. Sonny, by the way, thinks he's a dog. We follow Tracey before and during her search for her lost brother, with shifts in timeframe aplenty as her confused teenage mind is mimicked by director McDonald and screenwriter Maureen Medved's (adapting her own novel) out-of-order narrative.
A masterclass in non-linear storytelling that comes together as a collective whole without opting towards contrivances or wishy-washy convention, The Tracey Fragments brutally analyses the possible mental collapse of a youngster driven to feeling the world is against her. Her pain, masked by irreverence and an unemotive exterior, at her detachment from her parents' (Ari Cohen and Jackie Brown) emotional neglect of her and younger brother Sonny is palpably felt. As a popular target for school bullies who has developed a sacred bond with her younger sibling, her anguish at his disappearance, which might or might not have something to do with Tracey, is felt all the moreso because it serves to drive Tracey, a misunderstood and smart young girl, further into the metaphorical ground.
The way in which the aesthetic unfolds with a preference towards multiple frames interlocking and crossing over each other in the same moment could have come off as pretentious in the hands of other filmmakers. However, because Bruce McDonald - as well as scribe Medved and cinematographer Steve Cosens - know what they're doing and always seem to have a full understanding of what they're trying to say with their visuals, The Tracey Fragments feels like it comes from an earnest place as opposed to one that simply wants to make itself seem a little different. But, boy, the film is different to anything else I've seen, which, as it transpires, is an extremely good thing.
Ellen Page is phenomenal as Tracey Berkowitz, a girl who keeps her head down and silently endures the abuse of her classmates and relatives if only to make naive decisions when anyone shows her some affection or even attention. In many ways, Page's task of playing Tracey is more difficult than having to play the title character in Jason Reitman's Juno. True to incomparable form, Page doesn't put a single foot wrong, winning over the audience in her offbeat and socially uncomfortable portrayal of someone eternally struggling to find their place in the world. Somehow I doubt that this shall see her get another Oscar nomination, but she deserves accolades regardless.
Supporting performances are mainly superfluous to Ellen Page's starring portrayal but are all very good nonetheless. Essentially a bunch of offbeat (if for different reasons) characters whom Tracey encounters throughout, the actors get to enjoy themselves playing people who aren't frivolous screenplay constructs. Even a performance by Julian Richings as woman shrink Dr. Heker doesn't feel nearly as out-of-place as it sounds.
If justice is served than The Tracey Fragments shall hereafter be hailed as the masterpiece it so truly is. However, it can be expected the non-linear storytelling and impossible to deconstruct narrative might put some viewers off. Also, some in the audience might cry foul at the open ending, that perfectly explains the complexity and simultaneous naivete inspiring Tracey in her quest. I loved watching The Tracey Fragments the first time and I could easily watch it again countless more times.
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