If this title intrigues you then stop right now. Don’t google the movie, don’t watch the trailer, and definitely don’t read the reviews on Rotten Tomatoes. I am going to do the best I can at barely touching the surface for this film because I find it incredible. I’ve since imparted it on two friends of mine and they both loved it, though they also went it with little to no knowledge of the premise. So with all of the warnings out of the way, let’s jump in.
I’ve never been a hater for Shia, and I know he gets a pretty bad rep for the “Transformers” films and definitely for “Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull”, but like most sane people I just pretend that movie never happened. Therefore when I first heard of “Charlie Countryman” I was intrigued; it had some recognizable names and seemed like an interesting story based on the one line synopsis I read. I gradually forgot about it until recently when I picked up the Blu Ray off eBay. My roommate and I sat down to watch it one night and besides the previous knowledge I had (which I summed up two sentences before this), my roommate had none so we just figured “why not”. Easily one of the best decisions I made during the month of February.
I’m going to try my best to give you a plot outline without really giving you anything to go on, if that makes sense. Remember, this is about all I had and I still wanted to see it, so hopefully you’ll feel the same way. Shia LaBeouf is the titular Charlie Countryman who decides to travel to Bucharest on a whim. Through an unfortunate series of events he meets a girl, and he understands that he needs to take the leap.
Yeah, that’s all you get. I don’t want to tell more because then you’ll pull out the microscope and things will get nasty. Yes it gets a little disjointed at times, yes it may have a plot hole or two, but you just have to jump in, much like Charlie. The journey we as an audience go on is one of just letting go of preconceived notions, and instead of looking back for the rest of your life wondering “what could have been”, that we should have at least one of those moments where we decide to “do”. Charlie’s adventures are crazy, dangerous, sexy, fun, and just about every emotion you could possibly go, and the ride is totally worth it. The way I told my friend about the film was by relating it to “Drive”, another film that leaves you thinking about it way past the disc being ejected. He sat down to watch it on this recommendation and liked it so much that he watched it again the next night with his girlfriend. I urge you to give it a shot, look past your dislike for Shia (because it’s got other people in it, like Mads Mikkelsen, Evan Rachel Wood, and Rupert Grint in a very NON “Harry Potter” role…that should be enough to give it a view) and just try it. I promise you will be happily surprised, and if you are…please spread the word.
And if you still aren’t hooked, Shia reportedly tripped on acid for the scene where he…trips on acid. Legit.
Oh and one final thing. This blog came about because I was mentally “collecting scenes” from movies. You could watch an entire film and feel pretty good about it but if the last scene sucks, or the music’s off, or something just doesn’t click how it should, your reaction will turn into “Meh” whenever you’re asked about it. “Charlie Countryman” was way above any sort of bad feelings by the end, but in case it ever needed the extra push the ending scene has a defining moment where a song by M83 comes blasting through the speakers at the most perfect time, and I couldn’t help but smile. Consider that scene “collected”.
DIRECTOR’S CUT: Please pass this film along, it has some pretty sad ratings on Rotten Tomatoes and elsewhere, and even if Shia has decided that he’s no longer famous, this film needs some love. At the very least you’ll have a new outlook on taking that leap.
FLICKCHART RATING: 262/2099
The Scene Collector 