Smoke

So, today I saw SMOKE, a movie adapted from a story by Paul Auster. I like Paul Auster, he writes good stories and I consider his City of Glass to be of highest quality among many. But SMOKE is not like these. I´ve come to build a certain expectation from Auster-stories. Absurdity, Life and the questions surrounding it, Conflicts between Man and Nature etc. These are well, in part missing in the movie. To say there is a plot would be stretching it.

The movie revolves around Auggie Wren, a 50something played by Harvey Keitel. Only, it really doesn´t. What it does, is revolve around Auggie and the people around him as he works in and for the Brooklyn Cigar Co. It´s summer of 1990 and in episodic tales we meet people and see a part of their life. How it currently goes. Many questions in this movie go unanswered and we never get to see many solutions, but to hope for these goes besides what the movie actually has to offer.

SMOKE was interesting to see, because it has this feeling of authenticity I am missing in many movies nowadays. You know, this feeling, like this could really happen. It feels human in that way. Unfortunately, there is much more to it, than I could fathom in one viewing, but I will restrict myself to that one and I advise others to do the same. The movie might be viewed on deeper levels, but at the same time leaves the viewer unsatisfied and further viewings won´t solve that. Not to mention, that I believe a certain level of pretentiousness to be in there, that is, within the movie. If anything, watch the ending. Auggies christmas story is worth a watch and the ending credits support that wholly.

If I were to give a single worded opinion, I´d say it is Ok.