Fest Track On Sirk TV Film Review: OUT OF SYNC [Toronto International Film Festival 2021 - Virtual]
The idea of perspective in sound is a unique dichotomy. What comes before and after the image and how does it change our sense of knowledge but also as a result of interaction. In director Juanjo Giminez's "OUT OF SYNC" [Contemporary World Cinema], the story uses the reflexive work of the motion picture industry to show the reversal of fortune of a person whose livelihood revolves in seeing the sync of sound...and when it leaves her. The film and her condition starts off slowly but becomes more pronounced and then takes on an almost ethereal element without getting too preachy. The film never veers into dread but instead at certain times almost has a wistfulness though some audiences might not fully get its conceit. Communication becomes an interesting play especially when the "delay" becomes even more pronounced where she is hearing conversations of people after they are gone.
Marta Nieto plays the sound designer with a sense of inevitability but also of steadiness, even in her darker moments. And yet there is a sense of compassion. Ivan (Miki Esparbe), her would-be boss and friend, meanders between his roles but when it just two of them in a café at on point where she is at her lowest, he offers her a journey almost in sound breadcrumbs that only she can follow. It is an interesting exercise and reflects in the beauty of filmmaking and watching films where she ends up since it is told simply with image and sound as delay to display a sense of love. This resonates as the film moves towards its conclusion, even in an abstract moment after she listens to music and then it fills the air. The film is not cinematically overdone per se...it is actually more matter of fact...and in that way, it is perhaps more relatable, although the reset that sets her to recovery is a bit more primal. But again that is sometimes what life is and gives it perspective. B
By Tim Wassberg
