Bubble plods drearily into mediocrity

The movie Bubble, a Steven Soderbergh experience, has hit theaters. To start off, if you are standing in line at the movie theater and see Bubble in the window, do not go to see it. If you do go see it, you will be wasting what you paid for admission. I wasted what I paid for admission, and I was able to see the movie for free.

If you think that does not make any sense, then you certainly will not be able to understand the movie.

The movie does do a good job of painting a bleak picture of a poor rural town and the hopelessness of the people who live there. None of the characters have a full high school education, and, through various circumstances in their lives, find themselves in a hole that they cannot climb out of. It is an experience that people who have escaped such towns can relate to, but the rest of society cannot.

The movie is hindered, though, by the acting or lack thereof. The movie has a reality TV feel to it that seems misplaced. While the effect helps add to the rural town portrayal Soderbergh is trying to create, the stumbling lines, lack of voice inflection and poorly written dialogue make the plot hard to follow in several places.

The length of the movie also hinders its success. In an era of exceptionally long featured films, Bubble is exceptionally short, barely crossing the one-hour mark. The short time frame does not allow for any character or plot development.

The movie is billed as having a "love-triangle," but the nature of the triangle and the relationship between two of the participants is extremely hazy.

The plot seems to plod along without any real purpose to it. Perhaps Soderbergh did this on purpose to liken the movie to real life with no big build up to a climax that explodes onto the screen and leaves everyone satisfied with what they just saw. If that was his purpose, he was successful.

Another problem was the ending. The movie ended without a complete sense of resolution, but instead of leaving the viewer wanting more, it left the view wanting something, anything.

Several people in the audience were thoroughly disappointed when the ending credits began to roll, myself included. It was not a disappointment of "bummer the movie ended," but a disappointment of feeling almost cheated out of that hour of your life.

I will be the first to admit that I may have completely missed the point of the movie. Independent films usually have some underlying quality that the layman usually does not pick up on.

The movie did do a good job painting a bleak picture of hopelessness in rural America, but did little more.

If you wish to see a portrait of poor rural America, take a trip outside the city and see the real thing. If you want to see a movie, see something else.