As I Lay Dying

Just like two of my favourite films this year, the terrifyingly beautiful Stoker and spiritually violent Only God Forgives, James Franco's eighth directorial venture, As I Lay Dying, has garnered mostly negative reviews from the critics. Franco manages to transcend the self-constraining question of 'unfilmability' of the obliquely splintered novel by Faulkner. He uses diverse cinematic techniques, like split-screen and face-on camera address to portray the multi-voiced narratives and fragmented monologues of the characters. The overuse of split-screen is not distracting or jarring, rather it effectively highlights the eerie ambiance of the brooding tragedy, the isolation of characters connected by blood, sense of loss and desire for rebellion, and the constant role reversal of identities. However, he fails to stimulate the comedic undercurrents of the novel in the otherwise fairly admirable effort at adapting one of the most difficult 20th century novels.