For Ellen (2012) - Review

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Plot 

'For Ellen' is a film about Joby Taylor (Paul Dano) who is a struggling musician trying to fight over custody for his daughter Ellen with the help of his socially awkward lawyer Fred Butler (Jon Heder). The film follows Joby as he tries to come to terms with the potential loss of his daughter and previous life. He stopped seeing Ellen to try and make it big with his rock band but after that went wrong he soon realises he might just loose everything... 

Review

The film starts out with Dano driving through the snowy surroundings of Canada with a very grey and depressing atmosphere, Dano's character doesn't make a great first impression for being a father with his leather jacket, black nail varnish and guyliner, who seems to be more interested in establishing his rock 'n' roll lifestyle than bringing up his daughter. However we do warm to his character as we soon realise how he is not happy and wants to make a change for the better. 

We are thrown into the story of this film as we don't really know whats happened and it just feels like the harsh reality sequal to Juno or something. After the scene of Dano driving through the snow (don't worry there are ALOT more scenes similar to this) we are introduced to his lawyer played by Jon Heder. At first this seems like a very serious role for Heder to be playing but we soon realise he still lives with his mum and his personality and values are the complete polar opposite to Dano's character. Heder's character Fred however does supply some light heartedness to an overall somber film.

One of the best scenes in the film is when Joby and Fred go to a sleezy bar together, we see some good character development and an amazing performance by Dano as he dances to 'Still Of The Night' By Whitesnake. In this scene we realise how different Joby and Fred are to one another- Fred spends his time working and with his mum and Joby spends his in bars and waking up not fully aware of where he is. Undoubtedly Dano's character is the main focus for this film and he carries it well showing his true skills as an actor. Heder again plays his role fantastically but unfortunately we don't really see much of him after the bar scene. 

Paul Dano in his role as Joby Taylor

The film deals with the issue of divorce and young parents really well as we see Joby trying to connect with his daughter Ellen. He is aloud to take her out for two hours and we see how he awkwardly tries to make a connection with her. This scene is really realistic as we see how a young father tries to act mature and responsible but we also how he clearly loves and care for Ellen despite his age.  

The film is shot beautifully with many landscape shots of Canada and unusual closeups in the more gritty scenes. However as I said before we do see an awful lot of scenes of Dano just driving through the town, if half of them were cut out I think the film would seem a little more fast paced. The shots in scenes also are unusually long and drawn out making the scene feel like its going on for a long time because we are just looking at the same shot with no cuts to closeups or point of view shots etc. I do think this adds a more realistic feel to the film though as the time span of it is only about three days and we know exactly how the story is developing from day to day. The realistic feel of the film is also enhanced by its use of diegetic sound and no montages or flashbacks. 

Don't get me wrong, the cinematography and acting in this film is amazing, but I do feel it would benefit from shorter more frequent scenes so the film doesn't feel so slow paced. A bit more character development on Joby's ex-wife and Fred wouldn't hurt either. However, I think this might be intentional as the films overall feel is a sort of 'fly on the wall' perspective of just Dano's character. 

Verdict 
A beautifully shot film with an incredible performance by Paul Dano, however, a little too slow paced for me because of the focus just being on one character.