Track 29 (1988)

Tied for the best movie I have ever seen

Purely Joyful Movie!

One of the best films i have seen

One of the film's great tricks is that, for a time, you think it will go down a rabbit hole of unrealistic glorification.

I normally expect good performances by Gary Oldman and Theresa Russell, who play the roles of Martin and Linda respectively. The storyline had me a little curious, so I watched it on a web-TV based channel. I must say that as the movie progressed, I had increasingly more difficulty keeping straight in my mind what was supposed to be real and what was supposed to be the product of the two key characters' schizophrenia. Both Oldman and Russell were experiencing hallucinations and the editing (intentionally I'm sure) did not make it easy to determine when we are seeing real moments or imagined ones; off course, some of these moments were clearly in the realm of fantasy. I concluded rather quickly that this was going to be a very confusing story. The characters of Oldman and Russell had serious psychological issues, which as best as I can tell were clouding heavily their judgement, and making them lose their grasp with reality. They are brilliant playing their mad characters and that was bout all I enjoyed about the film. Christopher Lloyd (Dr. Henry Henry-not a typo), among the sanest of the key players, in the role of Russell's husband, had entirely different psychological issues, one of which dealt with a sex fetish his nurse (played by Sandra Bernhard) was quick to assist him with. Dr. Henry's total disinterest with his wife Linda, one who had a healthy sexual appetite for a sultry and good looking wife, was enough to drive the teetering spouse into an unhealthy mental state (I'm no medical specialist but common sense is a pretty good foundation for such opinion). Oldman is the long lost son of Russell, so when the two of them go at it (enthusiastic fornicating) a few times, I immediately thought Freud's dissertation about what the troubled PhD. termed Oedipus complex, needed a new chapter and so would academic papers on incest. The only character in the movie that had her head straight, was played by Colleen Camp (the neighbor Arlanda); it's thanks to her I found the words for my review summary… Ball of Confusion. A word on T. Russell; if you want to see a terrific performance by her, watch 'Black Widow', a movie that was released a year before Track 29. I can't recommend this movie, I really can't

Poor Theresa Russell is once again subjected to her husband Nicholas Roeg's own unique brand of cinematic shock therapy, playing a frustrated southern belle trapped in a loveless marriage to model train fanatic Christopher Lloyd (hence the oblique title). When a disturbed young stranger wanders into town claiming to be her long-lost son, she begins to wonder if her mind has snapped, but there's much less to the film than what meets the eye. Roeg likes to mask the meaning of his scenarios behind a smokescreen of self-indulgent style, inside of which is a more-or-less conventional story struggling to get out. His collaboration here with writer Dennis Potter would seem to be a match made in heaven, but stripped of its visual and narrative razzle-dazzle devices the film emerges as little more than a perverse and uneasy mix of satire and psychodrama, with several flamboyant performances and a great mental breakdown montage, showing trains colliding and buildings collapsing, all inside Theresa Russell's pretty, mixed-up head.

A young man is going around provincial USA searching for his mother that he never saw. As soon as he was born his young and careless parents sent him to mental hospital. Now Gary Oldman is free to go so he decides to find his mother, the one he was missing all those mental hospital days. His mother Linda (Theresa Russell) lives in American dream but doesn't seem to be happy. Her husband is fond of collecting railways for children. Sure, he has one of the largest railway-toy system in the whole state. He is proud of his railway model and pays more attention to his railway-world than to his young wife. Who used to have some nasty experiences before became a noble woman. But all that world is just smashed by the coming of that crazy son, who wants the revenge for such unhappy childhood. Finally Mummy lets her successful husband to meet her naughty son. Great, rather cynic, cold black humour film. www.myspace.com/neizvestnostlab

I only rented out the film last night and Ive watched it three times since. Such an interesting little film and it leaves tons of questions. Its thought provoking on whether some scenes are real or some are part of Lindas (Theresa Russell) insanity. I wasnt too keen on watching Theresa Russell or Christopher Lloyd on screen (the spanking scene was incredibly disturbing) but Gary Oldman somehow saves the film which makes it at least watchable. He was loveable all the way through as Martin.If you love Gary Oldman, watch this. If you dont, then youll be disappointed.4/5