Man Push Cart

On meetup.com, I joined a Film Club group that meets at a local independent movie theater to watch pre-run movies and join in on a discussion afterwards with a film critic.

*Spoilers*

This past Sunday, I met up with some folks and watched Man Push Cart. It's a story of a Pakistani immigrant who works as a breakfast cart vendor in Manhattan and tries to survive in the big city while morning the death of his wife. Ahmed gets different opportunities to break out of the isolation and emotional cold he lives in, but somehow, things never work out.

I'm not one of those people who has to have a happy ending in a movie. I loved the ending to the the director's cut of the Butterfly Effect. It was sad but stayed true to the spirit of the movie. However, Man Push Cart has no redeeming qualities, no hope and no resolution for Ahmed. It felt more to me like a slice of life film which can be a meandering, slow film with little plot since many times the lack of action or plot movement is the point of a day in the life. But Ahmed's story is just plain painful without every explaining or letting the audience know enough to join in on the pain and loneliness. Instead, we are subjected to his misery without ever having the chance to understand how he got to that point in his life and share his emotions. We just get beaten over the head with it.

If two plot points were revealed, I would have happily joined Ahmed in his journey. But, unfortunately, these plot points were not revealed, and so I was left feeling sad, depressed, unsettled, confused and wanting more information.

** out of *****