Canada, United States · 2003
1h 54m
Director Thom Fitzgerald
Starring Brent Carver, Olympia Dukakis, Jane Leeves, Don McKellar
Genre Comedy, Drama
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An intense relationship drama that takes the form of a mystery, The Event centers around a series of unexplained deaths that occur among the gay community in New York's fashionable Chelsea district. Nick, a district attorney investigating the most recent case, a suspicious apparent suicide, and her interviews with friends and family of the deceased trigger extensive and intricately interwoven flashbacks that reveal surprising facts about the man's life and death.
Shot on crummy DV and told via flashbacks, the film largely plays out like a Reagan-era "Citizen Kane." Common sense wrecks even the film's funniest bit, and the director's nausea-inducing camera observes the hysteria in perpetual pan-and-scan.
Christian Science Monitor by David Sterritt
The topic is thought-provoking, the flashback-based structure is interesting, and there are surprising twists near the end. But there's also an overdose of sentimentality that badly dilutes the picture's impact.
Middling drama about euthanasia, worked out through a sprawl of underdeveloped characters.
As reasoning, this is manipulative -- as filmmaking, it’s dull.
A very important film that is as sad as it is uplifting. After viewing it you may just have a whole new appreciation for life.
New York Daily News by Jack Mathews
Other than the terribly miscast Posey, the cast is solid, with Dukakis wrenching the heart as a mother tested to the max by her son's request. But the movie didn't tell me anything I didn't already know.
Los Angeles Times by Kevin Thomas
Has such quiet power that it is actually not depressing, and the cast follows suit with Dukakis, Carver and Posey, rising to the occasion.
New York Post by Megan Lehmann
A good edit would have allowed the film's worthy, obviously heartfelt, message to shine.
Writer-director Thom Fitzgerald -- his previous feature was "The Hanging Garden" -- has managed to make a comedy about assisted suicide that hardly feels black at all.
The New York Times by Stephen Holden
A dawdling affair that never finds its own rhythm. Early on, it gets lost in its own earnestness and never finds its way back.
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