Film review (C) 1997 by Kevin Patterson
Color of a Brisk and Leaping Day (NR, 1996) Written and directed by Christopher Munch. Starring Peter Alexander, Jeri Arredondo, Michael Stipe.
Christopher Munch's Color of a Brisk and Leaping Day is a good example of the right way to do social commentary in film. Its characters do not shout slogans, nor does it overstate its case by creating an exaggeratedly heartless villain. Rather, it focuses on John Lee (Peter Alexander), a young Chinese-American who fights to save the railroad that his ancestors helped to build. World War II has just ended and the U.S. government wants to shut it down; Lee resolves to raise enough money to keep it up and running. Munch rarely strays from this simple plot line, following the tremendous effort Lee makes for what is probably a hopeless cause and the difficulty it causes in his personal life. Not only are the "villains" of the story-in this case the Washington budget-slashers-not exaggerated as is often the case in films with a social theme, they do not even appear on screen. Lee receives news of the latest budget cut or deadline by telegraph, and the film focuses on how he reacts rather than on the supposed ill-will of those responsible. Munch does not underestimate his audience's intelligence, then; he allows his viewers to understand the social commentary of Color of a Brisk and Leaping Day for themselves rather than beating them over the head with it. He also shows his skill as a director, creating a mood of melancholy that hangs over Lee's probably futile endeavors to save the railroad. At the same time, he tosses in a few moments of off-beat humor-most of them involving Skeeter (R.E.M.'s Michael Stipe), the quirky clerk at the train station-that are good for a laugh but do not undercut the generally somber nature of the story. This film is also quite original stylistically in that it occupies a sort of middle ground between a feature film and a documentary. John Lee is not only the main character, he is also, in a sense, the narrator and the director. Almost as many of his lines are spoken in voiceover as in dialogue, and the lingering shots of railroads and their surrounding scenery evoke Lee's aesthetic sensibilites as a true railroad enthusiast. Some have criticized the film on the grounds that the images sometimes seem disconnected and that Alexander's acting is bland. I see it more as a product of this style: Lee's character is revealed through the film's choice of images rather than through dialogue and emotional outbursts from Alexander. If something appears on the screen, then we are to assume that it is important to Lee and thus draw our own conclusions about his character. Color of a Brisk and Leaping Day is also successful as a character study, then, although it falls noticeably short in one area: its handling of Lee's romantic relationships. At the beginning of the film, there is clearly incestuous, albeit possibly unconsummated, attraction between Lee and his sister, yet the film never really explores the implications of this taboo relationship. Lee seems mildly uncomfortable with his sister in a later scene, but no more so than we would expect with a normal ex-girlfriend. And his later romantic interest (Jeri Arredondo) gets only a cursory introduction before the two of them become a "couple." It is rather disappointing to see an otherwise fiercely original film fall back on the Hollywood convention that whenever two attractive people appear on the screen at the same time, they will instantly fall in love. This is at most a minor flaw, however, and even if the relationship is underdeveloped, Arredondo's character does at least serve a purpose in the story. In any case, despite the occasional distraction, Color of a Brisk and Leaping Day is successful as a character drama, a study of the human implications of the government's railroad policy, and, above all, as a stylistically innovative film. Grade: A
*This film was not rated by the MPAA; it would, however, probably receive an R for one scene of nudity and for the implied incestuous relationship.
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