Aren’t our lives like smoke that dissipates, leaving bittersweet aftertaste on the memories of those we love/loved or got acquainted with? In that way, great movies could also be compared with smoke, leaving traces of pleasure to savor for all our lives. Similarly, Wayne Wang’s “Smoke” (1995) posesses the unhurried pace of a good life and uses the hook of a narrative to ponder over the mysteries of human condition, which subsequently leaves a strange and fascinating after taste in our mind & heart. “You’ll never get it if you don’t slow down, friend” says a central character in the film and that pretty much comes off like a warning to those expecting a hastened drama with nicely dressed-up resolutions. “Smoke” is an episodic, contemplative and amazingly vibrant movie about strange coincidences and inexplicable changes.
Written by novelist Paul Auster and set in the early 90’s
Brooklyn, the film follows a formula used in Robert Altman’s “Shortcuts”
(1993). However, the tangible emotions injected into the script by deft direction
and an excellent ensemble doesn’t make it a derivation. The inherent gentle
nature of the film also brings to our mind the movies of masterful film-makers
Yasujiro Ozu & Wim Wenders. In “Smoke”, the central place that brings
together the seemingly random characters is a cigar store, situated at a corner
of the Brooklyn neighborhood, managed for 14 years by Auggie Wren (Harvey Keitel). Auggie is natural born story teller and loves to converse with his
customers, while selling them quality cigars. Paul Benjamin (William Hurt) works as a
storyteller. He is a novelist, whose life is filled with despair after the
death of his beloved wife in a random shoot-out. In an earlier sequence, Auggie
shows his good, friendly customer Paul his life’s work: a massive collection of
photographs neatly stacked in albums, and all are taken outside his shop at the
same time (8:00 am), every day for the past 14 years.
Paul hurries through the album, saying ‘it’s all the same’.
Auggie replies that aforementioned, beautiful line “You’ll never get it, if you
don’t slow down”. Now, Paul slows down and sees his dead wife, walking to work,
in one of the photographs. He cries over and something is changed within him in
that little moment and strange meeting. Paul is also saved from a traffic
accident by a 17 year old drifter Thomas aka Rashid Cole (Harold Perrineau). He
offers the young man a lemonade and that if Rashid wants, he can stay at his
place for a day or two. Rashid is one the quest to track down his father, Cyrus
Cole (Forest Whitaker), who was long presumed to be dead. He finds his father
running a run-down garage and asks for work. When Cyrus asks for Rashid’s name,
he says ‘Paul Benjamin’. One day, out of the blue, Auggie’s ex-girlfriend
(Stockard Channing) meets him at the shop to seek his help to save her
drug-addict daughter (Ashley Judd), who may be Auggie’s daughter too. Describing
the character nature or lives of these people with words, may not make us to
forge an emotional bond with them, but the adorable low-key performances along
with a humanistic script really offers a touching experience.
Much of the dramatic events in the characters’ life happens
off-screen or seems to have happened in the past, and so there’s no plot to
speak of. Like when Paul slows down and appreciates Auggie’s collections for
what it is, we would accept the movie’s beauty by not searching for narrative
trajectory. Of course, not all of the situations or characters keep on giving
us the resplendent feeling. There are quite a few contrived, melodramatic or
idling sequences, but for the most part of running time, the events aren’t
forced or remain totally unnatural. Director Wayne Wang and Paul Auster had
worked in harmony to bring out their unified vision in realizing each of the
simple sequences. If the excellent cast brings the extraordinary emotional
catharsis in the many occasions, it is Wang and Auster, who makes us to
genuinely feel for characters and to relate with their pains & dilemmas.
Two stories serve as bookend in “Smoke’s” narrative. The one
at the opening is told by Paul to Auggie about a English man, who had tried to weigh the smoke
from a cigarette; and the story at end is told by Auggie to Paul, which is a
Christmas story involving a thief, a old blind grandmother, a missing wallet
and a stolen camera. And, if the first is about elusive nature of life and the
things we miss in life (but can’t say what it is), then the last one (delivered
in a brilliant monologue by Keitel) is about mysteries of chance meeting or the
necessary lies we tell ourselves to make something out of life. Whatever, these
two stories are about it celebrates the power of storytelling. In some manner,
the stories told by the characters might be neat concoction of lies, but still
they reveal some deeper truths about the human condition. Paul Auster’s script
ruminates on how our past experiences and thoughts like smoke becomes
immaterial wisps, floating around us. It also talks about the impermanent
nature of human lives. Auggie’s camera is fixed at a place and captures people
day-to-day. It may seem nothing on a outward glance, but a closer look reveals
a lot. The photographs become a witness of life moving by before our very own
eyes. Eventually, “Smoke” is about celebrating the little moments and small
coincidences, which may bring out huge changes in our lives.
Trailer
“Smoke” (108 minutes) is a subtle and finely textured study
of a community and its people. It emphasizes on the significance of story
telling and the strength of being connected with fellow human beings.
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