Philip E. Bateson Jr. This story unfolds when our main character, Bat, played by Ellen Page is invited to join a social movement called spark. They help young homeless kids find resources and try to educate them.As the movement grows, so does the leader's desires. He eventually recruits these young burnouts into relocating to a vineyard somewhere in Spain. Bat is at first all in on the whole commune thing and is working diligently to prove her worth.She is shunned by the leader, Harry, and in an attempt to gain favor with him, she has sex with him. (no nudity, sorry pervo's) This backfires as with most demigod figures in history has a real problem with libido. His performance on the night was lack luster. Bat tries to comfort him and he recoils and then turns in back on her in a communal meeting and she is ostracized by the group and punished.The veil is lifted and now Bat is seeing and thinking clearly. She tries to convince her mom, who in an attempt to stop her was sucked in to commune, to leave and get away. She fails.This movie is very good reminder of why communal living, whilst great in theory, is not so great in its application.Morale of the story. DIY DO IT YOURSELF Think for yourself. When it looks wrong, feels wrong, sounds wrong....IT'S WRONG!!!!

TxMike I found this movie on Netflix streaming movies. I had recently re-watched 'Juno' and wanted to see a few other roles Ellen Page had before she became famous. The title comes from an early scene where some 'SPARK' members are demonstrating mouth-to-mouth one evening in the streets of Berlin. There also is a much later scene where it was used to try to save someone. But on a more symbolic level it could apply to what the members of the SPARK cult provide for each other, for survival.Ellen Page is London high-schooler Sherry . She just doesn't seem to identify with the rigid life and decides to just go away, joining up with the others in SPARK, headed eventually to Portugal in the SPARK bus. Natasha Wightman plays Sherry's mother, Rose , soon hitting the road to look for Sherry, and quite unexpectedly finds her.Eric Thal is the defacto leader of SPARK, and as is the case with cults, he makes the rules and decides what the punishment is if someone breaks them. But his method is even more insidious, he befriends the prettiest, has sex with them, then shuns them. As Sherry finds out the hard (no pun intended) way. As they eventually stand up to him, explaining he 'sucks the souls out of people.'I suppose the main thrust of the story is the overused 'coming of age' experience, this for Sherry. She finally wises up and breaks free, but in a twist her mother decides staying with SPARK is what she really wants out of life.It is not an easy movie to watch, mainly because you know there are street people like that all over. But it is a good watch for Ellen Page, she is amazingly good.

ivovanderavert Through the years, I've become a huge fan of Ellen Page and I must admit that this was the sole reason I wanted to see this film. But ultimately, this film was a real bummer.Page's acting is superb of course, along with some other actors. But throughout this movie, each genuine tension build-up seems to accumulate in an anticlimax. The movie starts gripping, but then all of a sudden some highly implausible elements are added to the equation, resulting in disappointment and even irritation.For instance, when Sherry's mother finds her and takes her with her, all of a sudden *she's* the one who wants to stay, while Sherry wants to leave. The way in which Sherry's mother turns into an avid fan just overnight is some kind of 15-year-old story-writing that is a mere insult to the viewer. The scene where Sherry and here mother suddenly start some kind of 'streetdance' along the road is not some kind of comic relief, neither does it have some kind of strange 'symbolism', it's just plain silly.Moreover, plot elements are just dipped into this movie as if it were a great pan of soup. The one minute, Nancy is alive and well, the other minute, she's dead in the pit without any further explanation. Harry, who has become more and more sadistic and manipulative, just stares blankly at Sherry and Mad Ax as they leave with the van, giving him more than enough time to intervene. It seems that the only person with consistency in her character is Sherry. However, it must be said that some genuine tension is present, and the whole concept of a semi-cult leader intimidating his followers is convincing.This movie is the equivalent of trying to sleep while your neighbors are fighting. Every time when the noise fades and you *just* feel comfortable enough to go back to sleep, the noise suddenly comes back.If it weren't for the good acting (the lead actors definitely 'rescued' this film) and the great music, I'd say that this movie is an all-out slap in the face for anybody who expects a decent indie-movie.

Alain English Directly preceding "Hard Candy", the film that made her name, "Mouth to Mouth" is Ellen Page's break-out movie and it's easy to see why. Her performance as Sherry, a lost young girl in Eastern Europe finding sanctuary with a group of sub-hippies, is a standout in it's bravery and sheer physicality.Sherry (Page) is a runaway from Canada loose in Germany who takes up with a group called SPARK (Street People Armed with Radical Knowledge), a group of similarly adrift young people taken under the wing of Harry (Eric Thal), an older man with high ideals. Other notable people in the group include fun-loving Nancy (Beatrice Brown) and friendly, zany Mad Ax (Maxwell McCabe-Lokos). Sherry shares a conflicted relationship with her mother (Natasha Wightman) who joins the group in an effort to reclaim her, but the two of them come under strain when it's clear that Harry is less interested in high ideals and more interested in controlling the group by any means necessary...The central of themes of how ideals are subverted in the name of power, even with this group of so-called radicals, are realised in the latter part of the film where Harry sets his group to work on a vineyard where his true motivations become clear. While this is very interesting to watch, I still thought more could have been done with it. As good a character as Harry is as written, Eric Thal does not seem to have the range to make his transformation truly register emotionally. Consequently a good part of the film falls down.It is Page, of course, that saves the movie although even she is not quite at her best here. Her performance does not have the wit of her "X-Men" and "Juno" appearances, nor the edge she would acquire doing "Hard Candy". Nevertheless there is a strong and truthful physicality in her presence that registers best in unspoken moments, especially the roadside exchanges between her and Wightman, and later McCabe-Lokos. These two scenes are like a dance, yet seem perfectly natural and it's difficult to imagine another actor doing them this well."Mouth to Mouth" is Region 1 and hard to find in this country, but it is worth looking up anyway for it's interesting themes and Page's central performance.