Search - Mind the Gap on DVD

Pam F. (PamYla) from JONESBORO, GA
Reviewed on 2/11/2012...

If you like Intermission and Crash, you will like this. It is more loosely based to Crash though I think. Really good movie. I enjoyed it, made me cry too

To Life!

Alejandra Vernon | Long Beach, California | 08/25/2005

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Filmed on a stringent budget and time schedule, "Mind the Gap" is a brilliant ensemble piece that follows 5 life stories in a heart-warming, life-affirming web of coincidence. Director Eric Shaeffer, who also plays the part of Sam, has woven this magical tale into a film I will never forget. It is a love song to life, and it is also about courage. The courage to do the things that result in a life lived without regrets.



The cast is superb. Alan King plays a cantankerous old man on a mission, and this was sadly to be his last film. Elizabeth Reaser plays Melissa, a young woman born of a rape, who has a heart full of strength and love. Reaser is luminous, a beauty that will no doubt be a superstar in the near future. Christopher Kovaleski is Rocky, Sam's gangling, bright and shining son, who is a delight to watch. Singer Jill Sobule is Jody, a petite dynamo with an extraordinary talent as a songwriter and as an actress, and the film features many of her songs. Charles Parnell is incredibly moving as John, a man despondent over his divorce. There are many other great performances too numerous to name individually, all of them memorable characters, played to perfection, and the thread around them is Julio Diaz, the Times Square salsa dancing man.



Watch this film several times, and you will see its many layered quality, revealing more with each viewing. It is a quirky, beautiful, warm, and lovable film, and deserves one's time and attention. Filmed on location in New York City and Vermont by Marc Blandori, the music is by Veigar Margeisson, with some mystical, lovely selections by Krishna Das. The DVD extra is the commentary for the film, which is chatty and informative, and total running time is 130 minutes.

"

Typical New York movie

Larry VanDeSande | Mason, Michigan United States | 10/20/2006

(3 out of 5 stars)

"Here's the second-most common genre of film being produced -- the New York movie, second only to the L.A. movie. In this one, five disparate people end up in New York for somewhat related reasons. Only one of these actors, Alan King, has any star power and is a name you may recall from your past if you are of a certain age or if you watch "GoodFellas" every time it's on.



Eric Schaeffer's portrait of troubled people coming from different compass points to New York is a largely sympathetic portrayal of people from all kinds of backgrounds and ethnicity. In other words, it was made to show there was something for everyone in the movie.



One of these people is a 70-year-old meandering around the city in dangerous places on his way to a destination; another is a quirky woman that spent her life caring for her bitter and dying mother; still another is, again, a quirky woman, a street singer with a bad heart looking to make good; a fourth is a black man seeking absolution for wrecking his marriage; the fifth is a man and his son seeking resolution of the father's past life. They all end up in New York in the end on their way to someone or something.



This movie tries to care for all these people and tries to show the goodness that exists in everyone, even among the midst of depression, death and defeat. The optimism of the ending follows a lot of heartbreak and grief throughout, creating an old school, old world film that harkens back to a time when emotion was what moviemaking was all about.



You'll probably like a lot of what's going on in this movie and, if you are a New Yorker, you may be able to identify with some of the action or locales. Otherwise you will like some of the characters, who come off as real people -- albet "New York-ized" for the screen, if you will -- and drag along with them their real problems.



My undying wish is that someday, somewhere, a filmmaker will make one of these movies about a city other than the big two and get out of this parochial fix. There might be 50 million Americans on the two coasts but there are 250 million of us living elsewhere seeking representation."

Why isn't this film more well known?

S. C Sochet | syosset, NY United States | 07/20/2005

(4 out of 5 stars)

"This is a terrific film by Eric Schaeffer, who also stars in this ensemble piece in the tradition/spirit of the better Robert Altman films. Every scene makes sense. The performances are all excellent, including a wonderful job by the late great Alan King, one of the best American talents of the past half century. This is a movie well worth seeing. See it yourself and be surprised as I was."