Czech Republic
Empties
Review by John Packman.
Vratné lahve (Empties) is the latest film from the father-son team of Zdenek and Jan Sverák, who won an Oscar in 1996 for Kolja. The same modest, crowd-pleasing quality that endeared that film to Academy voters is alive and well in Empties. The elder Sverák plays Josef Tkaloun, a schoolteacher who walks off the job one day when his patience is finally exhausted. The remainder of the film finds Josef working in the bottle return room of a supermarket, fantasizing about every woman he sees, and generally living in blissful denial of his aged condition and the increasing distance in his marriage. This scenario could easily have degenerated into standard-issue Euromiserablism in the hands of another director, but the Sveráks wisely choose to mine Josef's crises and relationships for gently humourous effect. Zdenek is an assured and ingratiating presence as an actor; he imbues Josef with humanity and warmth but allows him his myriad faults, chiefly his academic haughtiness and his maddening inability to pay attention to his wife.
This generosity of spirit is extended to the rest of the cast as well. Daniela Kolárová is excellent as Josef's wife; she seems to regard him with equal amounts of affection and resignation, and Kolárová lends her a quiet dignity even in her most hysterical scenes. The majority of the film's humour is generated from the interactions between Josef and his circle of acquaintances rather than from any sort of plot contrivance, and feels all the more natural for it. If Empties has one glaring liability, it has to be the overly maudlin score, which has an unfortunate tendency to trowel on the strings when the film really needs to let its more sentimental moments speak for themselves. Despite this niggling detail, Empties is a well-made, thoughtful comedy. No one is going to confuse the Sveráks' film for High Art, but their genuine affection for their characters emanates from its every frame, and in an age of increasingly cynical meta-whatever comedies, that's a rare and good thing.
Empties
Jan Sverák | Czech Republic | 2007 | 102min
Wed. Oct. 3 | 7:00pm | Empire Granville Theatre
Sat. Oct. 6 | 4:00pm | Empire Granville Theatre