This film takes place in an assumedly typical town called Middleton, population 14,000. The story follows the lives of roughly eleven people and watches how they intertwine. The film begins with a series of events which all take place at and directly preceding 11:14, and they all eventually fit together to show the whole story. This film begins at the end, and goes back in time to show what the events leading up to 11:14 were. It is the time prior to 11:14 that makes up the bulk of the film, but it jumps around in time a lot, frequently changing from 11:14 to 11:00 and etc.
Review
First of all, it is interesting that the film does the inverse of most other films when it comes to time. Most films (except for things like Run Lola, Run or Crash) take place over a number of days and try to cram all of that information into a two-hour movie. 11:14, however, takes place inside less than an hour, and they still try to cram a whole bunch of information into things.
11:14 encompassed basically the same idea as Crash, but most of the characters were younger and there wasn't a central theme of racism. I am sure there have been many other films made with similar or the same idea of following several different people's lives and watching how they all come together in the end.
The large problem with this film is that it's just not believable. In a city of 14,000 people, the audience is supposed to believe that eleven of them would interact so frequently. Perhaps if the town had been much smaller, with less than 500 people it would be slightly more believable, but basically every person seen walking about in any of the scenes is one of the eleven main characters. It is hinted at that "the whole town shuts down at 9:00," but I live in a town with 8,700 people and though it shuts down at nine, it would be odd to see the same person once, not run into them all the time. Also, the town of
Middleton seemed to be about four blocks large and would definitely not accommodate 14,000 patrons as the sign proclaimed.
One thing I was slightly baffled about was the fact that the actual filming of the movie was bizarre. In the beginning everything was very grainy looking as though I was watching a movie made in 1983 instead of 2003. I noticed this very grainy quality in the beginning of the film, but as things progressed it either gradually went away or I adjusted to it, because once the end came I wasn't noticing it any longer.
One absolutely unique feature of this film is a special feature that comes with the DVD. Throughout the film there will be an icon reading "jump" with two arrows around it that will appear in the bottom right corner of the screen. If the viewer is to click this icon, it will take them to one of the other storylines so that they can see what is going on with other characters at that moment. With this feature, it is not necessary for the viewer to watch the film in the order it was filmed in, but instead can watch it in pretty much any order they desire. This feature sounded very cool, so I took the liberty of checking it out so that I could give it an accurate review. Though it sounds interesting in theory, I don't think I would watch the film like that. The jump button isn't available whenever you want it and it can only take you to one specific character and sometimes it can't take you back. It might not be too bad to look at one or two scenes this way, but to attempt to watch the film without watching the same scenes over and over would be incredibly difficult. It is a cool idea, but it isn't applied well.
Another cool special feature provided for two of the scenes in this film is something called "Storyboard to Screen." This allows the viewer to watch a scene play at the same time as they watch the sketches from the storyboard progress. It is interesting to see how changes were made from the original idea for the scene to the finished product, and it is cool to watch someone's ideas that were at one time only ideas become a reality.
Conclusion
I am beginning to think that the following several different people's storylines concept doesn't really work. It didn't seem feasible in Crash, and it didn't seem feasible in 11:14. I might watch this film again because what with all the jumps in time and etc. I sort-of feel like I might have missed some thing about the film. The biggest problem I had with the film was how unlikely it was. This whole story was supposed to be taking place in a small town, but the number of accidental deaths that take place on this average night in this small town is alarmingly high. The chances of one person being killed are quite slim, let alone having more than one individual die.
The timing on this film was also a little bit messed up. Some of the things that were done were done in much too short of a period of time for the task. Some of the film took place after 11:14 as well, and I wish it hadn't. The beginning of the movie starts at 11:14 and then continues for a little while after 11:14, while everything else in the film after the beginning takes place before 11:14 and leads up to the end, which is 11:14. The beginning of the film continues on past the time, and the audience is left to wonder what happened in the beginning. The first scene was left completely unexplained after time began to jump around. If the film hadn't spent so much time messing with time, perhaps the story could have been concluded in a better way.
