Mona (Alba) is asked to leave her house when her genius math teacher father (Shea) suffers a stroke. She gets an apartment and a job as a Math teacher at a local elementary school.
Mona has OCD or led a very sheltered life while her father was in good health; or both. We really haven't been told a lot of her teenage and college years. Out in the real world, she moves, looks and talks like she is in some kind of a trance. I suppose we could say her father's stroke brought all this on her. She experiences reality when she is told by her mother (Braga) to leave the house and get her own place. The mother says it is her job is to take care of the father, not Mona's. Mona understands what is happening and just goes with the flow, not liking it but still passive in her actions. That is, until she meets Ben (Messina) the Science teacher at her school. And, even that is tentative.
This is a strange one to watch. At many points we feel like someone needs to shake Mona into reality, but she is stubborn in that she holds on to her tapping on wood when she feels nervous and what her father told her (when she was a little girl) what was needed to be happy: to give up things. This giving up of things has ruled her life.
What could have helped was better dialogue with a little less mystery all around. We just don't know what direction Mona or the movie will take. We suffered too. She needs an epiphany or a not so invisible sign.
I was looking forward to the math classes, but they were disappointing. I didn't learn anything except to worry, more than a little, when Mona brings an Ax to the classroom, with good intentions, mind you. But, you just knew that was going to figure into things later on. (5/10)
Not for everyone and if there is a sequel, I'll pass. Violence: No. Sex: No. Nudity: No. Language: No.
Mona has OCD or led a very sheltered life while her father was in good health; or both. We really haven't been told a lot of her teenage and college years. Out in the real world, she moves, looks and talks like she is in some kind of a trance. I suppose we could say her father's stroke brought all this on her. She experiences reality when she is told by her mother (Braga) to leave the house and get her own place. The mother says it is her job is to take care of the father, not Mona's. Mona understands what is happening and just goes with the flow, not liking it but still passive in her actions. That is, until she meets Ben (Messina) the Science teacher at her school. And, even that is tentative.
This is a strange one to watch. At many points we feel like someone needs to shake Mona into reality, but she is stubborn in that she holds on to her tapping on wood when she feels nervous and what her father told her (when she was a little girl) what was needed to be happy: to give up things. This giving up of things has ruled her life.
What could have helped was better dialogue with a little less mystery all around. We just don't know what direction Mona or the movie will take. We suffered too. She needs an epiphany or a not so invisible sign.
I was looking forward to the math classes, but they were disappointing. I didn't learn anything except to worry, more than a little, when Mona brings an Ax to the classroom, with good intentions, mind you. But, you just knew that was going to figure into things later on. (5/10)
Not for everyone and if there is a sequel, I'll pass. Violence: No. Sex: No. Nudity: No. Language: No.