Oct 13 2009
Wow, do we all hate this movie?
You'll be tired of seeing this face at least 15 minutes into the movie.
This movie made me realize how important likeable characters are to a story. Some films are ‘made’ because of the sheer charisma and likeability of the characters. This attachment is key because it allows “Suspension of Disbelief” to set in and allow deeper emotional involvement with the plot.
As I was watching this movie, I learned how not to portray a character.
It seems that Mimi, the protagonist, has very little likeable traits. At first, she seemed to be a strong-willed woman who disliked the hypocrisy and double standards that plague the world of African marriage. It seemed like such a good premise at first, but in the end the director failed to develop the matters that surround Mimi’s conflict and ended up making her sound like an emotionally unstable teenager.
Mr. Cisse had so much potential but ended up turning Mimi to a one-dimensional and unlikeable character. These qualities are quite mutually exclusive. I remember watching “Inglourious Basterds” and remembering the character of Lieutenant Aldo Raine. In the end, he was just as one-dimensional as Mimi, but he exuded a kind of humor and charisma that in the end made him likeable. The funny thing about it is that Mimi had more to contribute to her story than Lt. Raine did to his but nevertheless, Lt. Raine appears on all of the theatrical posters, is listed first in the credits and has the movie’s trailer devoted to him and his humorous excessiveness.
Of course, there are a lot of reasons why “Inglourious Basterds” was a good movie and why “Tell Me Who You Are” is less than satisfactory, but I think the characters contribute a good amount. There are more likeable characters than Lt. Raine in “Inglourious Basterds.” Running on the opposite side of Lt. Raine, the character of Shoshanna Dreyfus brings a more serious light to the film as the audience watches her try to avenge the massacre of her family by ensnaring her Nazi enemies in a trap. I liked the villain Hans Landa because of his witty and intelligent dialogue that perpetuated suspense in the serious confrontational parts of the movie. Contrast this with “Tell Me Who You Are.” At the half-point mark in the movie, Mimi had lost all of her sympathy-winning traits and lost her credibility in my eyes (It started to go downhill when she said that she didn’t expect to share Sissou with other women once she agreed to a Polygamous marriage). Once a batter is out, a good baseball team should have more to replace him. Is this so in the case of this movie? Nope. There were no more remotely interesting characters. Sissou barely speaks and Abba is practically interchangeable with Sissou. These characters have no real personality, and end up just being stock characters in an unstimulating story.
In conclusion, I think this movie would be infinitely better if it had Brad Pitt. And Nazis. Definitely Nazis.
For more information on “Tell Me Who You Are,” you can check out the trailer here.
The characters did affect the outcome of the film, but I think the plot affected it more. It was slow and repetitive, it could have been condensed into 30 minutes, yet it dragged on and on. If the director had tried to actually develop the storyline, the film might have been tolerable.
do you really believe that Mimi was the protagonist?
as the instigator of all the drama and problems in the movie, i saw her more as the antagonist.
as far as the characters – let’s be honest: did you REALLY like them?
Mimi was nothing but a drama queen. Sure, she was a powerful, strong woman. She was independent. She knew how to stand up for herself and stand alone. But when she started crying all over the place, I lost all respect for her.
And to go on and cheat on your husband after making up with him; after making him invite his sisters to come and talk to you about keeping the marriage together? Really? She was immature. Cisse made the mistake of making her a dynamic character. She should have been left one-sided. Cisse shouldnt have had her go through changes.
The thing is, a protagonist doesn’t have to be a “good guy” or a “bad guy.”
In some movies and TV shows, the main character is far from being the “good guy” (Look at Dexter). The protagonist is just whoever is the star of the show.
Semantics make me sad too.
Second post!!
Thank you for your fascinating post!