Gerry (2003)

Editor's Note In Gus Van Sant's GERRY, a film more concerned with atmosphere and visual breadth than with story or plot, a frivolous hike through the desert evolves into an existential journey for two young men. The film features only two characters, both named Gerry and played by the film's co-creators Casey Affleck and Matt Damon. Driving through a desert populated with imposing rock formations and bordered by miles of sky, the two Gerrys stop to see an unspecified "thing" which they are unable to find. The two young men then attempt to return to their car, but cannot find the pathway back. As they wander through the increasingly difficult desert terrain, their journey strains their friendship and becomes an exploration that is clearly about more than just finding the car. After several commercial projects, GERRY is in some ways a return to roots for director Gus Van Sant. The motifs of moving clouds and the desert imagery may recall his early works--MY OWN PRIVATE IDAHO and EVEN COWGIRLS GET THE BLUES--but GERRY is even more ambitious than those revered projects. Highly influenced by Hungarian filmmaker Bela Tarr (WERCKMEISTER HARMONIES), the film uses minimal dialogue and long, languishing shots to achieve a meditative mood.

	Casey Affleck
	Matt Damon
	Arvo Pärt - Composer
	Gus Van Sant - Screenwriter
	Dany Wolf - Producer
	Harris Savides - Director of Photography
	Casey Affleck - Screenwriter
	Gus Van Sant - Director

New York Times
"...GERRY seeps into your pores like the wind-whipped sand that stings the faces of these disoriented hikers..." 02/14/2003 p.E13

Los Angeles Times
"...A tough, vigorous exercise in cinematic form and pure aesthetics....Meaning is continuously seeping out of these images..." 02/14/2003 p.C4

Entertainment Weekly
"...GERRY is a very slow and beautiful and compelling movie....By the end of the movie, you know that you've been somewhere..." 03/21/2003 p.127

Chicago Sun-Times
"...A movie like this doesn't come along every day..." 02/28/2003 p.29

Sight and Sound
"...Intriguing....The eye reads narrative and meaning into the landscape, photographed coolly by Harris Savides..." 10/01/2003 p.50-1

Film Comment
"The camera movement speaks to a modern condition of disassociation..." 01/01/2004 p.44