Search - The Guitar on DVD

Sharon F. (Shar) from AVON PARK, FL
Reviewed on 1/21/2023...

What would you do if you were told you had a terminal illness? This movie shows one woman's journey. It was very well done and I felt it was very sensual.

Michelle S. (Chelly10s) from W HOLLYWOOD, CA
Reviewed on 4/16/2009...

Very interesting film. It makes you think about the uncertainty of life, the value of possessions, and what really makes a person happy.

3 of 5 member(s) found this review helpful.

Saffron Burrows Soars

Joel S. Schneider | San Francisco | 12/03/2008

(5 out of 5 stars)

"I saw "The Guitar" at a film festival and I was very moved by the experience. The central character goes through a transformation when confronting her mortality that anyone who's open to the experience will find incredibly absorbing. Don't be put off by the talk of going on a spending spree - that is NOT what the film is actually about (its not a validation of wanton materialism) - the buying of material objects is just part of a process that the character, Melody, needs to go through in order to discover what's important. For any connoisseur of the beautiful, talented Saffron Burrows this film is a wonderful gift. She delivers a deeply felt and brilliant performance that dominates the screen in almost every scene. Its hard to imagine anyone else being able to animate this challenging role the way Ms Burrows has - she performs magic. There are whole scenes where she is alone on the screen and has no dialogue and sometimes not even any clothes. Its quite primal. Later she explores her sexuality and discovers more of what she's been missing and has a lot of fun, too. I don't want to give too much away but I will state that the film is much like a parable and has an ending that might startle some - either positively or negatively. Many people will love this film and I can also imagine some disliking it - it depends on your perspective. In my case, I thought about "The Guitar" for days after I saw it - it really resonated."

When your tomorrows were all yesterday

TropicalMinnesota | 03/03/2009

(4 out of 5 stars)

"A haunting film about a woman reacting to the news that she has terminal cancer, she has been downsized from her job, and her boyfriend "needs space", and all events occur just a few hours. Mel rents an expensive penthouse apartment (with a very short term lease) and goes catalog shopping. Soon her empty apartment is filled with the finest of furnishings. Her former vegetarian diet is overthrown for lavish take-out food, or actually delivery food in her case as she does not leave the apartment. As her empty apartment fills, so does her life. She begins affairs with two delivery people and buys her childhood passion, a red guitar.

Eventually Mel's life empties out again, but she is left with the greatest posession; knowing what is important to her. Although there are a few things in this movie that seemed unreralistic to me, they involved her playing the guitar. She seemed to learn awfully fast, but more disturbing to me was to see her playing in her apartment with several huge amps but no complaining neighbors.

This is the kind of movie that I think needs a couple of viewings before it is fully appreciated. I plan to watch it again in a week or two. It may make me raise or lower my opinion by a star, but I look forward to seeing it again.



"

Freedom

T. Johnson | Portland, OR | 08/14/2009

(5 out of 5 stars)

"I enjoyed this movie. I felt the whole premise is about what would happen if you were completely freed from the normal boundaries of the day to day world and you could do anything you wanted - no longer locked into your current real world situation, no longer concerned with duties and the expectations of anyone around you, no longer contorted to fit into the box you've made for yourself in life. The path of the character made perfect sense to me. Saffron Burroughs did a fine job of acting, and her beauty is almost a kind of poetic element of the film. In many ways the movie was all about healing and restoration, both of the body and the spirit, through the freedom to breathe.
"