Twice Born - Was vom Leben übrig bleibt

First off I want to say there will be no spoilers.

I was lucky enough to catch the premiere screening of "Twice Born" at the premiere at TIFF. I didn't know anything about the film and the only person involved that I recognized was Penelope Cruz. This is a very ambitious film. It intertwines many different stories from present day, and back about 20 years in the past. It follows Penelope Cruz's character Gemma as she goes to Sarajevo with her son on a vacation. This bring backs memories, and we are shown all the events that took place in her life about 20 years ago.

Now, I don't think I've ever commented on the makeup of a film but I have to applaud it here. The characters makeup is so good, that you totally by the time gap between the 20 years. The script of this film is good. Not anything amazing. What brings me to give this film such a high rating, and one of the best films of 2012 (even though I've yet to see The Master, Looper,Argo, To the Wonder, etc) is the visuals. This film is shot so beautifully that it reminded me of the best film of 2011 "The Tree of Life".

An odd thing to point out is that for about the first hour and a half of this film I had my eyes on giving it a 7/10. The last half hour or 40 minutes is so magnificent and executed to near perfection that I recommend anyone to see this film for this alone.

The performances (led by Penelope Cruz) are great, and the characters all have a distinct and widely different personality's. Go into this movie with an open mind not knowing anything about the story and i'm sure that you'll enjoy it as much as I did. Like the review written before mine, I would like to salute the cast, crew, and especially the director for pulling off such a wonderful film. I hope you anyone reading this review will go out to see this film, as I'm sure it will land on my list of 10 greatest of the year.