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Monday Morning (Otar Ioseliani) 2002
* * Jeremy Heilman 10-18-02 |
The droll wake-up routine that kicks off Otar Ioseliani’s
Monday Morning sets up the world the
story takes place in as one that’s slightly skewed, but it’s tough to get a
handle on exactly what rules the movie is playing by. The straight-laced
protagonist drives an absurd little blue car that’s put in contrast against
the normal looking ones that the rest of his co-workers motor about in. This
suggests his character stands somewhere outside of most of society, but when his
neighbors are introduced, each of them seems equally as eccentric as the main
character. Monday Morning wants to
bemoan the drudgery that has risen from modern life due to incessant,
mind-numbing routine, but it’s tough to imagine growing bored in a world as
vividly realized and frequently diverting as this one. Every individual the film
looks at seems more interesting than the last, and when then protagonist goes
AWOL from work and disappears from the movie for an extended period, Ioseliani
has no difficulty filling the void with the quirkiness provided by the rest of
his cast. Although we’re meant to see the absurdity in their actions, they
seem no more or less ridiculous than the protagonist, who rebels against the
world so meekly that people scarcely notice.
Monday Morning
has its finger on a certain kind of modern day ennui that comes about when an
adult realizes the obligations of the working world prevent him from explorting
his interests as fully as when he was a child. The sort of disillusionment that
arrives with that revelation is conveyed here in a semi-successful, whimsical
style that explicitly recalls the films of Jacques Tati (the postman in the
small town where the film takes place is a Hulot look-alike who reads the mail
of his customers) and only further stresses the lead’s inability to seize the
wonders than exist around him. The mildly amusing tone that the film establishes
in its first moments never wavers, however. This is a film about the irksome,
tiresome nature of complacency that remains utterly satisfied to remain the same
throughout. Even as the hero of the story rediscovers his passion in life, the
mood remains oddly detached. The audience never feels the relief and enthusiasm
that the protagonist must when he escapes his habitual monotony, and Monday
Morning is a punishing exercise as a result.