Phyllis and Harold (Friday, February 19, 2010) (14)

This is an interesting, if unsuccessful, personal documentary by writer/director Cindy Kleine - who happens to be the wife of Andre Gregory - about the relationship of love and hate between her parents.

More than being about both Phyllis and Harold, though, it is really the story of her mother, Phyllis before, during and after her father, Harold. She tells the story of two people who got married probably when they shouldn't have and stayed together for more than 50 years because that was what people did from the 1940s through the 1990s. They certainly loved each other, but fought constantly the whole time they were together. But this fighting was not typical marital disagreements - it was vicious, hateful, angry fighting.

For many years, Phyllis had an affair with a man she worked for as a secretary in the 1940s and never forgave Harold for taking the bliss she felt in that affair away from her. Harold was a hard-working dentist who always provided for the family, but was always emotionally distant and never totally aware of his wife's hopes and desires.

This is a fascinating concept, I think, that hatred can be as much a binding agent in relationships as love. If this were a scripted narrative drama, it would be a very interesting idea. Sadly the format for the film feels very cheap and undermines the greater message of the film. Kleine uses terrible and unnecessary animated elements to transition between elements of the story, but these come off as looking cheap. Most of the film is shot on what seems to be a digital home movie camera (with lots of old Super 8 footage cut in) and it gives a less-than-serious quality to the picture. A bad score underlines this feeling as well.

Mostly the film is interviews with Kleine's parents, friends, sister and some biographical background. We see how once Harold dies, Phyllis is almost re-born as a young woman again, free to make her own choices (until her age reminds her that her body is not as young as her mind).

Overall there is a lot of interesting material here, but it comes off as poorly executed and badly written. There is a way of framing a fly-on-the-wall documentary so it follows a particular story. What we get here is a nice structured, opening
and then a more and more cloudy resolution to the story with no denouement or ending.

Stars: 1.5 of 4