The Possibilities Are Endless

Dir: Edward Lovelace, James Hall

2014

***

'Rip it Up' by Orange Juice was one of my favourite songs of the 1980's, I didn't realise it at the time in 1994 but the song 'A Girl Like You', that seemed to play everywhere all the time, was sung by the same guy. Edwyn Collins was everywhere in the mid-nineties and I always regretted not going to see him when I had the chance. Tragically and quite out of the blue, Collins suffered a cerebral haemorrhage in 2005 after being interviewed on the radio. The initial prognosis was not good and he went through a lengthy rehabilitation process and after many months had past he learned to speak again but could only say four things; 'Yes', 'No', 'Grace Maxwell' (his wife's name) and 'The Possibilities Are Endless'. This goes some way to understand the man, the love he has for his wife and his outlook he has on life. Edward Lovelace and James Hall's film goes some way in showing us this but it does get bogged down with the visual side. We learn later on in the film about the small town where Collins grew up and struggled to leave, a little of the success he enjoyed and the great love affair he has with his wife but the first two-thirds of the film is a rather repetitive and frustratingly relentless, arty-farty, existential, dreamlike nightmare. The camera focuses and unfocuses on inanimate objects, wobbles about a lot and shows the audience what the space just to the side of the person who is talking looks like and makes for unremarkable viewing. It is intended to illustrate the frustration Collins first experienced after his haemorrhage, with things becoming a little clearer towards the end of the film but it is far from interesting or entertaining. I get it, it's a nice idea, but the reality is that it just isn't much fun to watch. The last chapter of the film goes a long way in making up for it but I still don't know half as much about the man than I really want to.