The French film, Polina, looks at the story of a young female dancer, played by Anastasia Shevtsova,
that abandons the home life and classical training that she's known all of her life in an attempt to
discover herself.
I wanted to like this film, I really did. With it following the journey of a dancer and with me having
had danced all throughout my primary years, though it wasn't as extensive and solely focused on one
style of dance like it was in the film, I knew that there was that underlying factor could create that
sense of connection between me and the character and her story to a certain degree. However,
from the sometimes weird pacing and other times choppy editing, coupled with a feeling of an
apparent lack of direction and lack of connection to said character and her story, the film
ultimately fell flat for me.
While watching this film I couldn't help but to feel that it so desperately wanted to be something that
it unfortunately wasn't. It felt like the filmmakers wanted this film to be that kind of low-budget,
artistic, and reflective indie film that explores the pressures of female adolescence into adulthood all
the while attempting to make some philosophical point about dance and life itself. However, I never
really got the picture that the filmmakers were attempting to paint until maybe the last 30 mins. I
couldn't really tell you what it was that I was supposed to be feeling and/or thinking about any one
scene or the lead character. There would be these moments that visually may have looked good, but
when it came time to understanding how the specific scene fit into the larger picture or message of the
film, the connection would be lost on me. They would add in these scenes or lines that in the moment
felt purposeful but when you look back at the film in retrospect, you still can't really tell what their
purpose was.
There was a sub-plot about Polina's father being involved in some kind of risky business where he
owed some men some money that was touched on briefly throughout the film, and though, whenever
we see or hear about her father having to go away we can infer that it has something to with said
business, it was never really touched on in the way that one would hope. We're left with more
questions than answers by the film's end as to what the whole importance of that sub-plot was. Now,
maybe it was put in to show what exactly her father went through to be able to give his daughter the
opportunity to be able to receive the dance training that she did, but that's just a theory. We're never
really told explicitly what that situation was about or given enough evidence to definitively come to
that conclusion.
There were also, lines of dialogue that were spoken to Polina from various dance instructor's that I
had hoped would have played a bigger part in the film at some point later on, instead of just being
thrown into a scene for emotional effect. One instructor tells Polina that dancing is about "longing,"
while another tells her that her dancing should make them feel something; make them feel "what it's
like to know God." When I heard those lines, I just knew that they would be of importance because
I had assumed that in the end she would have made her dancing be about those very things, but that
wasn't the case. In the movie's defense, maybe I shouldn't have assumed. Maybe Polina's longing for
a closer relationship to her father may have influenced her dancing after that moment, but her
relationship with her father was never explored in that way for her dancing to then be influenced by
it. By the end of the film it just felt like her dancing was her way of proving to herself that she could
be more than just a classical ballerina, and if that was the point of the film, then, I suppose the
filmmakers did a good job of portraying that, but I don't get the feeling that that solely was the case.
Another, unfortunate gripe that I had with the film is the lack of connection that I had with the main
character, Polina, and the actress who played her. We never get any sort of insight into what she's
feeling or thinking throughout the film. Besides that, I never truly felt Polina's passion for dance in
the way that it was meant to come off. The emotion itself throughout much of the film was very
monotone feeling. This could be chalked up to the writing and directing itself, but the feeling that had
they gotten a different actress to play in the role of Polina would've helped me to feel more of her
passion and love for dance was unavoidable.
This was a relatively quiet and subdued film. Because dance is all about the movement of the body
rather than spoken language, it's understandable that the most action and noise that we get from the
film generally happens when there is dancing. So, that's not so much of a gripe or disappointment
with the film, as it is a mere observation and something to note if you do plan to watch it. In terms, of
the dancing itself, everything was beautifully choreographed, but that was more or less to be expected
from a film that's about a dance and that's co-directed by Angelin Preljocaj, a French choreographer
and dancer. I will say, though, that one Polina moved away from her classical training into a more
contemporary, modern, and very "grounded" way of dancing, I did find myself a lot more
encapsulated by the movement.
The last 30 mins of the film were the best minutes of the film, by far. I felt like that's when the movie
unfortunately really started to come alive. Every gripe or disappointment that I had with the film was
either gone or minimized by that point. Because of that, there was a part of me, in an attempt to give
the film the benefit of the doubt (because I really did want to like this film) and try to make meaning
of what it was that I had just watched, that began to think that maybe, everything that happened
before that was purposeful. The confusion, monotony, lack of confusion was all done so that when
Polina finally gains insight and realizes that one way to become a better artist is to find the beauty in
life is crystal clear to the viewer. But, then again, I don't know, and maybe I am just reaching...
Rating: 2.5 out of 5
