In terms of independent films, Soft In The Head scores low on this critics list of must-sees. When you first get a look at the title, a few ideas about the structure of the plot come to mind. Namely, things that ultimately would have contributed to a much more compelling plot, such as a young woman’s struggle for consolement in dealing with someone close, such as a lover or family member, who is mentally handicapped or autistic. Interestingly enough, the five-minute opening scene, uncomfortable as it is, almost makes it seem like this is exactly what’s going on, only to immediately pull the rug out from under you.
Nathan Silver took a relatively small budget from a Kickstarter campaign and delivered what he believed to be the essence of film in its purity.
“Movies should not be made from paper, but from people. What I mean to say is that I don’t trust scripts, even though I went to NYU to learn how to write them. I trust people, or at least the ones I’m working with,” Nathan wrote on one of his Kickstarter project updates.
Soft In The Head is a work of improvised fiction shot in the style of a documentary. Though there are a few ways that this ultimately could’ve been an almost-unique choice of style, the plot falls flat, and the arc of the story is so disjointed and difficult to follow that it lends almost no entertainment value. Worst of all, it’s difficult to hone in on who the actual main character is.
On one hand, Silver defines the main character to be Maury, a sensitive, almost creepy, and criminally caring individual based on a character from the 19th century Russian novel “Идио́т” (Idiot) by Fyodor Dostoyevsky.
However, the subject being examined largely remains the unremarkable character Natalia, a 25-year-old woman living in New York City who may or may not struggle with alcoholism. It’s implied that she may have issues with drug or alcohol abuse, but we rarely get a good glimpse of what’s actually eating her. So, we have to assume that she’s just a hot mess because that’s her character. No context means no depth and no human interest or relation.
Maury’s character is severely underdeveloped as the story progresses, and therefore wouldn’t be justifiable to call him the main protagonist. By the end, the film attempts to salvage whatever plot there was by having Maury’s character die of, from what we can tell, a broken heart.
The reason the movie is so difficult to follow is because Silver, in effect, told his cast to come up with a quirky character and then portray that character when the cameras were rolling. With minimal directorial influence, the film simply follows the lives the cast has created, which sounds much more interesting than it is. With very little on-screen chemistry and awkward exchanges in dialogue, the scenes often feel more forced than fun.
Essentially, Nathan Silver went to the extreme of a David O. Russell style shooting, where many of the scenes are improvised for the effect of natural realism. Had Silver taken the time to hash out and develop the characters his cast had created on paper, he could’ve still shot the film as a fictionalized documentary examining colorful individuals in New York City, and gotten away with it.
A more seasoned filmmaker, with a track record and actors more experienced with these types of films, may have been able to take a similar concept on and do much better. Unfortunately, Soft In The Head just falls short of entertaining. It almost begins to look like post-production received a lot footage that didn’t fit together well and had to attempt to make it work anyway.
Silver’s production, while at it’s heart had great intentions and big expectations of its cast, doesn’t accomplish much more than borderline mediocrity. Still, a hat tip should be gestured for going there; wherever there happens to be. ...†
