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Film

Indie Flicks: One good story, plus a little more

By STEVE PERSALL
Published May 19, 2005

Up and Down (R) (108 min.) - Like Nashville and Magnolia, Czech director Jan Hrebejk's film smashes together disparate characters whose lives have only minor connections, yet combine to make a social statement. And he does it in about half the time Robert Altman and Paul Thomas Anderson needed.

Up and Down begins with a pair of illegal immigrant smugglers who discover a baby left behind after their most recent delivery. While they figure out what to do with the child, Hrebejk suggests a solution in another part of Prague. An infertile woman named Mila (Natasa Burger) is desperate enough to attempt to steal a baby from a carnival. Her racist husband, Frantisek (Jiri Machacek), whose criminal record makes them ineligible for adoption, is shocked, first by Mila's black market deal and then by the Indian infant's dark complexion. What will his soccer hooligan brethren think?

Meanwhile, a tense family reunion pits a prodigal son named Martin (Petr Forman, son of director Milos Forman) against his father, Oto (Jan Triska), who suffers from a brain tumor. Oto wants a divorce after a 20-year separation from his alcoholic wife (Emilia Vasaryova). He wants to marry longtime mistress Hana (Ingrid Timkova), with whom he has an 18-year-old daughter. The kicker is that Hana used to be Martin's girlfriend.

Two stories, a batch of interesting characters, and seemingly no way that Hrebejk will be able to connect the plots. He does, however, through a brief encounter between Frantisek and Martin with profound results for one of the men. Hrebejk also finds time to take jabs at the Czech welfare system, ineffectual law enforcement agencies, bumbling crooks and soccer mania justifying thuggish behavior.

Up and Down goes around and around these issues in brisk style, ensuring that viewers won't be bored. Irony and pop culture references are fairly universal, but the ultimate lesson - we're all brothers and sisters under our skins - is elementary for the film's complex mechanics. Altman's and Anderson's films needed a dozen characters to make their points. Hrebejk could do the job with Mila and Frantisek's tale alone. The rest seems like highly competent padding. B

- STEVE PERSALL, Times film critic

[Last modified May 18, 2005, 10:01:06]