The Mother of Invention (2009) Online

When I first saw the Vincent Dooly audition tape a year and a half ago, I had no idea that was an actor, acting. I mean, I suspected it, as one must do these days, but Andrew Bowser's performance in it as a quirky, wannabe inventor talking to the camera as a hopeful subject of The Mother of Invention documentary - is palpable.

The Mother of Invention is similarly palpably entertaining as so many films try to be.

The balance achieved in casting as well as the thoughtful direction and editing renders the performances and the writing in the best possible light, with Bowser bringing the plight of goofball inventor Vincent Dooly to the screen not as a cartoon character, not as a one-note schtick artist, and (thankfully) not as a series of tiresome improv.

There IS a delicate balance achieved with respect to the story of Vincent Dooly (inventor) that never veers too far into silly territory, and never too far into poignant-land, all the while weaving poignancy and silliness into a compelling Indie effort that had me with it until the very end.

The entire cast should also be commended for their effort and I thank them for not throwing the lines out, phoning their performances in, or letting ego get in the way of the story and the film.

This film, obviously a low budget Indie effort is about as good an effort as I've seen in recent years, and I sincerely hope it can invent an audience for itself, because it deserves one.

Despite it's budget this film is fine in terms of a lot of the elements of film making. Visually, sets, costume, and much of the acting were good. It also had potential in terms of it's plot. But it sunk on several fundamentals.

Most importantly, I lost any sympathy I might have had for the main character when he delivered his self-centered rant on being rejected by the cafe girl. I really wanted to bail out at that point. An obnoxious character is not one I'm going to root for. The movie sinks irredeemably with that scene.

A movie about an inventor also NEEDS some ingenious inventions - not the one's we've all already heard of.

Then there was slowness. A lot of the scenes dragged on for far too long. Too much hanging around on someone's face with nothing happened except them pulling expressions - no story value there.

It was absent of a lot of the cleverness and humor I was hoping for. Had it been actualised a lot better this could have been a cult movie - instead it misses it by a million miles.

The only positive thing I could possibly say is that it only takes twenty minutes to watch the last three quarters of the film on high speed fast forward.

I almost chuckled at the hat, but not quite. Not funny for a single moment. Repeating the same action, that wasn't funny the first time, fifteen times made it painful to watch.

I only watched this to see Kendall Ryan Sanders as his performance in Criminal Minds was simply stunning but he was only in this for two minutes and nothing that could show any of his superb talent. It is quite a tragedy that this fine young actor has so much trouble getting a role worthy of him.

Complete waste of time, couldn't be more disappointed.