TO DIE (OR NOT) A film review by Steve Rhodes Copyright 2001 Steve Rhodes RATING (0 TO ****): ** 1/2
In Ventura Pons's comedic drama, TO DIE (OR NOT), the writer tells his disapproving wife about the fantastic idea that he has for a new script. He'll create a movie with six independent threads in which the six main characters die. Or do they? Faster than someone can shout, "Rewrite!" she tells him everything wrong with his idea. She thinks a movie called something like TO LIVE would be more successful. Her petty bickering gives him chest pains, the first signs of a heart attack.
We see his stories acted out, and it is increasingly obvious that they will all come together and the characters will not perish. After all, the title of the movie isn't TO DIE (FOR SURE).
The first concerns a motorcyclist run down by a speeding police car. The second involves an insufferable mother whose daughter is choking to death on a piece of chicken. The third is about a man who is being shot in his home by a robber. The fourth concerns a dirty, but surprisingly healthy looking, heroin addict out to get his last fix. The fifth is set in a hospital where a dying patient needs a nurse but can't quite reach the nurse-call button. In the last one, a depressed, crazy woman is about to take an overdose of pills. There might be more, but the prime problem with TO DIE (OR NOT) is that, while the idea is cute, the writer has trouble finding interesting things to do with it, so the result isn't particularly memorable.
Still, TO DIE (OR NOT) is a pleasant picture. The first part is filmed in sleek black and white with disorienting camera angles and fast zooms. The second part switches to lush colors and more tranquil camera work. Throughout, the movie is warmly scored with soothing classical, cello music.
The uneven script tosses around some ideas about chance and God but doesn't develop them. The humor is similarly slapdash. TO DIE (OR NOT) leaves you thinking about the movie's premise but not the film itself.
TO DIE (OR NOT) runs 1:30. The film is in Spanish with English subtitles. It is not rated but might be an R for brief nudity, sexuality, violence and language. It would be fine for teenagers.
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