sol- Desperate to find her younger brother who went missing when in her care, a socially awkward teenager recalls her dysfunctional home life, bullying at school and other events that led to the disappearance in this strange film from Bruce MacDonald, who would later go on to helm the remarkable 'Pontypool'. The first thing one is likely to notice about 'The Tracey Fragments' is the ambitious editing design with almost every single scene played out in multiple split screens, with some shots broken into over a dozen pieces, all depicting the same event from various camera angles. It is a nifty idea, especially given how the whole film is meant to be a series of memories, which are indeed more fragmental than linear. In a near 80 minute feature though, the editing technique wears thin rather quickly with the split screens seldom enhancing their scenes; this is not a film like Brian De Palma's 'Passion' or 'Twilight's Last Gleaming' in which split screens enhance thrills by showing separate events simultaneously. The storyline is also fairly mundane, editing wizardry aside. There are occasional clever moments, like when she imagines her life as a movie, complete with stylish opening credits, but the most interesting scenes are those in which she converses with her psychiatrist, which are mostly of interest since the role is inexplicably played by an actor in drag.

TxMike I watched this on my computer monitor, a streaming movie from Netflix.Ellen Page was 18 or 19 when this was filmed, playing 15-year-old Tracey Berkowitz who gets teased at school constantly because she is underdeveloped, while the other girls her age are buxom. She has strange parents, and a little brother who barks like a dog and wags his tongue. When dad insists that someone tell him why the boy is barking Tracey says she hypnotized him.In much of the movie Tracey is trying to find her little brother. We never know quite why he is lost, except maybe as a "dog" he has wandered away.At one point Tracey is sent to a psychiatrist, played by a man dressed up as a woman and with a wig.There really isn't much of a story here, and it is told in fragments. Maybe that is why it is called "Tracey Fragments", maybe it is a glimpse into the fragmented mind of a teenager trying to figure out what life is like.Her mind fabricates all kinds of stories. A girl may die in a swamp, no one knows where the body is, it decays and flowers grow from it. Bees make love to the flowers to produce honey, and eventually the parents of the dead girl buy the honey and eat it, so in the cycle they eat the girl. She also does one about horses, glue factory, kids making things in school, eat the glue, eat the horse.If this had been edited in a conventional fashion it would have been perhaps the most boring movie of the year. But the editor had a new toy, and the film is presented in multiple fragments, sometimes with as many as 12, or even more, different segments on the screen. This adds confusion at times, and after a while it becomes more annoying than interesting, but still makes the movie a visual experiment not quite like any other.Interesting to view, but not greatly interesting. Ellen Page is good.

fallonsoleilb I am very much at a loss for what to say about this film. It's unique, definitely, and I believe that's what people find so intriguing about it. Of course, with Tracey's frequent display of apparent rage, this also gives the film a turbulent quality. This is a look into the mind of a girl who is somewhat mentally deranged and confused, a probable product of her loneliness, neglect, and overall mistreatment. We follow Tracey on her journey to find her brother Sonny, who supposedly has been hypnotized into thinking he is a dog. On this journey, we figure out just how Tracey got where she is, in the back of a bus, wrapped in nothing but a shower curtain. Ellen Page does an absolutely amazing job in this role; not many actors her age could act the way she did. Such power and emotion was packed into the role, and there could not have been a better choice for it. Overall, this film is gritty, real, and powerful. A worthwhile film experience.

tedg Is there a better center for exploring simultaneous hallucinations than a "late blooming," possibly bipolar 15 year old girl, with creepy parents?It becomes easy to run into a point of view that has confusing, shifting vision. The trick is to show enough of a world that makes sense that we can see what doesn't. You need the horizon to know when you tilt. This is hard because you have to fold the two views into one eye, seeing the girl and seeing as the girl. Some of this has to make sense spatiotemporally and some has to goof with that same sense using it against itself.Along comes the device of multiple images on a screen. This dramatically increases the difficulty of shaping the cinematic effects, offering us challenging new dimensions.I liked this. I think it worked. Because it works and is new — and I mean pretty much wholly new discounting Greenaway. "Time Code" and "Hotel" played with these sorts of notions experimentally. This is placed between them, and with serious intentions to hurt. Hurt it does, and that's the first milestone for something that could matter. Ellen Page is more here of what she gained fame for in "Juno." She's fantastic. It makes Hilary Swank in "Boys Don't Cry" seem pretty tame.Ted's Evaluation -- 3 of 3: Worth watching.