Description: Like its central character, Henry Jaglom’s 16th feature is gangly and graceful, awkward and tender, a jumble of astute observation and clunkily heightened reality. In "Irene in Time," the indie auteur’s ongoing exploration of the female psyche reaches into the charged relationship between daughters and dads. If the melodrama is less than convincing, the film’s emotional truth packs a wallop, and the wise humor clicks.
Tanna Frederick, Jaglom’s onscreen muse since 2007’s "Hollywood Dreams," plays a thirtysomething little girl, a skilled singer-songwriter so emotionally raw, it’s as if she has no skin. She’ll wax nostalgic about “my daddy,” a long-gone gambler, with anyone she meets and uses the word “magical” with alarming frequency—and dwindling conviction.
Irene’s exuberance is lovely and excruciating. Living with a family friend, she hangs on every word of the cronies who knew her father while striking out with men and amassing a library of dating advice books. The story’s variously lying, cheating and just-not-getting-it males don’t come off well, but Irene too is capable of insensitivity. When one date reluctantly tells her that he develops strip malls for a living, she gushes out a long string of over-the-top thoughts that are as shallow as they are disingenuous. The uncontrollably loquacious Irene ends a long string of nearly incomprehensible thoughts with, "mini-malls are so great!" The unlucky guy discovers that he can't find the exit fast enough.
Her mother, understandably, wants her to grow up. With her calm clarity, Tennant more than holds the screen, as does Andrea Marcovicci, representing a more fevered brand of womanly self-knowledge. Harriet Schock’s literate songs are characters in themselves; the harmonizing voices of Irene’s recording sessions provide eloquent counterbalance to the soul-searching dialogue.
Even as the story enters telenovela territory, Frederick makes Irene’s neediness matter, and Jaglom orchestrates a stirring crescendo.
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Audio commentary .mp3 with director Henry Jaglom and actress Tanna Frederick
http://www.megaupload.com/?d=QXVTQKIM
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