Product Description

A wavering bride, a stranger, an earnest groom: "romantic triangle," right? Think again. To that set-up, filmmaker Matthew Parkhill adds twist after twist to shape a surprising romantic thriller. Gael Garcia Bernal (The Motorcycle Diaries) plays the stranger. Natalia Verbeke is Carmen. And James D'Arcy (Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World) portrays her fiance. Each has secrets to be revealed. Each is prey to the others' agendas. Keep your eyes open. Don't miss a detail. Cross your t's and Dot the I.

DVD Features:
Additional Scenes:with filmmmakers' commentary
Audio Commentary:by Matthew Parkhill, Director, and Jon Harris, Editor
Theatrical Trailer:Trailer for the movie within the movie

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #50154 in DVD
• Brand: GARCIA BERNAL,GAEL
• Released on: 2005-10-18
• Rating: R (Restricted)
• Aspect ratio: 1.85:1
• Formats: AC-3, Closed-captioned, Color, Dolby, DVD, Subtitled, Widescreen, NTSC
• Original language: English
• Subtitled in: French, Spanish
• Number of discs: 1
• Dimensions: .25 pounds
• Running time: 92 minutes

Features

• A wavering bride, a stranger, an earnest groom: "romantic triangle," right? Think again. To that set-up, filmmaker Matthew Parkhill adds twist after twist to shape a surprising romantic thriller. Gael Garcia Bernal (The Motorcycle Diaries) plays the stranger. Natalia Verbeke is Carmen. And James D'Arcy (Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World) portrays her fiance. Each has secrets to be re

Customer Reviews

You will want to watch this film again and again
Wonderful performances by Gael Garcia Bernal, Natalia Verbeke, and James D'Arcy as well as Tom Hardy and Charlie Cox (sort of like a Rosenkrantz and Gilderstern) -- great cast all around.

Great directing and editing.

The suspense will keep you guessing so that you cannot wait to find out who is who and why they are that way.

Sort of like the Spanish Prisoner and a bit like Sex, Lies and Videotape (in terms of the gritty realism).

It deserves all of the awards it won and then some.

Cross the T
Some have called this movie silly, shallow and poorly written, directed and acted. Do they actually think it is a romantic thriller? Its true subject is reality cinema. Independent films have fallen on slow times lately, having peaked at all the awards shows three years ago. That writer-director Matthew Parkhill has tweaked the genre while leading us in another direction entirely is so clever that Alfred Hitchcock himself might have cracked a smile.

Not that "Dot the i" pretends to match the master. But it does have the oblique view of human nature and dark motive that he liked. This little-known movie would be too clever for its own good were the script itself not so clever or so good. It succeeds by alternating scenes of suspense and surprise that, in retrospect, make perfect sense. The artists who made this film about artists like themselves haven't missed a trick. Critics who dismiss their accomplishment dismiss indie films, and we don't want that, do we?

A jobless Brazilian actor (Gael Garcia Bernal, he of the killer smile in his first English-speaking role) and a quick-tempered flamenco dancer meet cute in London on the eve of her wedding to a rich Englishman. All three bring to this triangle doubts about their own securities and commitments. One thing is clear: all three rightly suspect the other two are concealing something. As the story unfolds in several directions at once, we realize how devious the plotting has been and, in the final sequence, how slickly we've been conned. What a sweet surprise!

A Film of Confused Genre
DOT THE I has so much going for it that it is sad to ultimately feel disappointed at film's end. Even as one who loves the strange and bizarre in cinema, this viewer opted out of the credibility game as the film turns from a subtle evaluation of relationships, commitments, initial physical attraction, and interesting push pull stance placed on the heroine of the story into a rapid fire series of plot twists and convolutions that simply become silly.

But the good parts: Carmen (Natalia Verbeke, and Argentinean actress who is beautiful to look at but difficult to understand through her accent) is at a hen party in a restaurant, and is challenged to choose the last man she will ever kiss before her upcoming marriage to wealthy and handsome Barnaby (James D'Arcy). She looks around the table and chooses the down and out Brazilian actor Kit (Gael García Bernal, one of today's most exciting and sensual young actors) as her target. They kiss and that kiss is videotaped by Kit's two buddies who apparently tape everything that catches their interest.

This long kiss begins uncontrolled passion between Carmen and Kit and when their affair is discovered by Barnaby the plot turns. From this point on Carmen's allegiance to either Kit's passionate nature and Barnaby's promise of the good life cause problems. And the plot falls apart. It seems everything about these people is on videotape and the whole question of privacy in this current world of intrusion is vividly portrayed! But the 'suicides', threats, games, and every conceivable plot twist occurs making the viewer ultimately not really care about any of the three characters.

Matthew Parkhill has skills and vision. His camera work and pacing are really fine and he allows his actors to flesh out their roles well. There is a fine chemistry between Bernal and Verbeke: with Bernal on the screen it would be difficult for there not to be! But this film feels like a boardroom project with everybody's vote on how to end the story included as a photographed option. Grady Harp, October 05