Dot the I (2003)

Matthew Parkhill

UK

Although Sundance this year wasn't too bad, I was going to leave Utah with less than fond memories of the festival (and not just because I had so many nose-bleeds again). Dot the I was the last film I was going to see, and I must say I wasn't looking forward to it mostly because of the strange reviews it had got. Having now seen the little beast, I have to say that it was the best film I saw at the festival, hands down. The Q&A with the director was also absolutely fabulous because Matthew is one charming and witty character with a cool British accent that makes everyone seem charming and witty anyway.

It was not until the end of the film that I realized why the reviews had been so strange. Unfortunately, there is nothing much I can do about that and my review of necessity will be strange as well. I really can't tell you anything about the plot because if I do you will hate me forever and may experience bizarre longings that involve my untimely but extremely painful demise. I can't even tell you what I can't tell you, so you just have to trust me on this one.

Given the warm reception the film received in Salt Lake, I would not be surprised if it gets picked up for distribution by a major studio, so you may be able to see it at your local artsy theater soon. You will not want to miss it. It has the stunningly talented Gael García Bernal who many now know either from Y tu mamá también or Amores perros. The Mexican dude who plays the Portuguese-speaking Brazilian Kit here is amazing. One person I had not seen before, but whose flamenco I will enjoy seeing more in the future was the Argentinean starlet Natalia Verbeke who plays the Spanish beauty Carmen. Finally, the utterly unpredictable performance of James D'Arcy who stars as the utterly predictable rich British bore Barnaby deserves special mention for the delicious serving it provides.

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I am sorry but I cannot resist a little commentary on the film. It's just that after having spent the first 40 minutes or so regretting wasting my time on an average love triangle melodrama, I suddenly found myself drawn to the intrigue within intrigue and plot within plot within plot full of neat twists and even neater tricks. The film does not fail to surprise until the very last moment and this is a huge thing for someone like this jaded reviewer to say.

Once it was over, we went over the little clues that are all scattered around the film but which are there planted precisely to confuse you because you are almost guaranteed to interpret it the conventional way... which would be completely wrong! For example, once Barnaby finds out that Carmen has been fooling around with Kit, he tracks him down to a bar and we witness a scene in which the angry Barnaby confronts Kit but we cannot hear anything because of the noise in the bar. Naturally, I assumed that Barnaby, being the rich wimp that he was, tried to tell Kit to stay away from his fiancee, perhaps even offering him money to do so.

Then, when Kit finally sleeps with Carmen (on her wedding night, by the way) and tries to tell her something, which she (again obviously misinterprets as an admission of stalking), I began wondering about what shameful secret Kit might harbor and ended up (again, predictably) that the neurotic and jealous Barnaby had paid him to seduce his wife to see whether she was faithful and in love with him. Another hackneyed twist that was mercifully proven quite wrong.

I also enjoyed the little background story about the crazed ex-lover from Spain because all these stalking scenes made quite a bit of sense because of it. I simply assumed that the bastard had shown up to terrorize poor Carmen again... which is precisely what the director wanted me to think, of course, and which naturally proved utterly wrong. Anyway, even after you fit all the pieces of the puzzle together you may be surprised at how the story twists at the very end.

The one incongruous moment that bothered me from the very start though was Kit and his "friends" who go to what is obviously a very ritzy restaurant (where Kit meets Carmen for the first time). Now given that we later see how broke Kit is, how he managed to afford this place remained an unresolved issue that bugged me for a long time until the film settled it.

By the way, Barnaby's film for which he apparently won so many accolades must have been the absolutely boring cliche that I thought Dot the I would be! Hahahaha.

January 27, 2003