Ingmar Bergman's Through a Glass Darkly is a movie that is equal parts fascinating and equal parts aggravating. The movie is essentially a character study of a woman suffering from schizophrenia who was recently released from a mental institution. She spends her first 24 hours out with her husband, father, and brother on a vacation island. During that time, she experiences aural hallucinations about seeing God, which is where the movie finds its title. According to the Bible, seeing God in life can only occur through a glass, and darkly; we cannot see Him clearly except in death. However, explaining even this skeleton of a plot was not a simple task, requiring some external data-gathering, because the movie is full of subtleties that are far too subtle. The thing about it is that the movie is compelling enough to make you want to go out and find out more about it. Unlike La Notte, it's not bad enough that you can just dismiss the seeming impenetrabilities.Technically, the movie is a mixed bag. Shot by Sven Nykvist, it's beautiful. The editing is more than adequate, but nothing special. And as I've said before of the movie as a whole, the writing and dialogue are really interesting, but can sometimes be too confusing. The acting is similarly double-edged. At times there's overacting and posturing that makes it seem unrealistic. At other times there's underplayed subtlety that feels real but can be difficult to discern. Basically, the movie has some good stuff and some bad stuff. Neither overwhelms the other. Watch it at your own risk.
IMDb link: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0055499/