This is not one of Wiseman's best films. Many people complain about how long it is and that it feels like it's going nowhere. Well, the 2nd part is correct. The film is somewhat long (143 minutes), but most of Wiseman's films run between 3-4 hours, and a few of them go longer than that. City Hall is 4 1/2 hours, and Near Death is 6 hours. This is a relatively short one. The issue is that the film feels too short, and Wiseman, uncharacteristically, cuts around too much and doesn't let his camera run on the people on the town. Part of Wiseman's genius is that he captures fascinating parts of reality in his movies, but they are often extended and some scenes run up to 20 minutes in length. Despite these extended scenes, his films are never boring and I love almost everything I've seen by him. However, in Monrovia, Indiana, he doesn't do that. He just jumps around randomly to people and events without any flow to it. It's almost like he wasn't that interested in these people, and most of the people in the film appear merely once in the picture. In his other pictures, the subjects often appear throughout the film and the films flow better. The one time Wiseman lets a scene play out is at the end when a local woman passes away. That scene runs 20 minutes or so and is the best scene in the film.
We never really get to know the town too much because of the overly episodic nature of the film and that Wiseman never bothers to get to know the people that well. One of the few disappointments from Wiseman.
We never really get to know the town too much because of the overly episodic nature of the film and that Wiseman never bothers to get to know the people that well. One of the few disappointments from Wiseman.