'Museum Hours' A Review

Museum Hours is a lyrical film, a love song to museums and Vienna. The story is set in motion by a slightly contrived relative-in-a-coma scenario but it seems to only serve the purpose of getting the two main characters together. Anne(Mary Margaret O'Hara) travels to Vienna because an estranged cousin is in a coma. With little funds and no knowledge of the language or city she befriends museum security guard Johann(Bobby Sommer).

The film is punctuated and gently guided by Johann's narration. Johann guides Anne, and us, through Vienna. They discuss art, communication, solitude, and architecture. The pace of the film is slow and it's tone is relatively quiet. It evokes an engrossing museum visit. The film is not for everyone because there is no narrative to speak of and the light friendship between Johann and Anne develops gradually. It is beautiful, smart, and unconventional.

There is only one major flaw, a fifteen minute extended museum tour of a particular artist containing neither main character. All the actors in the tour are wooden and stiff coming across as bad local amateurs. The scene itself is incredibly long and stagnate made to feel even more so by the fluidity of the film around it.

A great movie for the right mood.

See It.