"Everything Put Together" would be a really great movie....on another planet. Good on execution and implausible on story, this serious little indie drama tells of a woman who is ostracized when her baby dies from SIDS. Of course no one behaves like the characters in this flick which sinks the credibility and makes the buy-in all but impossible. Just more flotsam on cable which may have some token entertainment value for the needy sofa spud. (C)

It seems the in thing now-a-days to laud the incompetent, the amateurish and the arty, especially in films. If the acting deserves quotation marks around it and consists of people aimlessly moving about the screen, it is subtly intelligent! If the dialog (script?) (delivered in such a way that trucks could be run through it)is puerile and flat with an irritatingly improvised quality, it is brilliant. The more soporific the pace, the deeper (or loftier) the film. The more long and needless tracking shots(which take up most of the running time), the more enduring the masterpiece. The artier the editing, the more original the movie. The more inept and slipshod the direction,the more profound the director.

I really cannot believe the praise heaped on this dilettantish piece of trash by a disquieting number of IMDb's commentators who seem to be so gaga over the subject that they ignore its treatment and do not seem to mind being put to sleep or tortured. One of IMDb's commentators states that the film is fine, but difficult to watch! If it is difficult to watch, how can it be a fine film? And speaking of subject matter and to make matters worse, several IMDb commentators indicate that pregnant women should not watch this film (or this is not a film for the pregnant), a generality (i.e., all pregnant women are alike) on an intelligence level with this movie.

Everything is going oh so perfectly in Angie and Russ' lives. They've got a big house, an enduring marriage and a baby on the way. They're insulated from everything awful, yet "Everything Put Together" shows their vulnerability and the transience of their well-being. A sober and skillfully rendered portrait of the American Dream unraveling, "Everything Put Together" is one of the most visually accomplished and emotionally provocative films in the Dramatic Competition at the Sundance Film Festival.

No yuppie magazine could find a better poster couple than Russ (Justin Louis) and Angie (Radha Mitchell). They're attractive, intelligent and endearingly supportive of one another. Also, they're blessed with friends who commiserate and compare notes on Angie's pregnancy. All is going well, especially the pregnancy. Everything is wonderfully normal, in no small part due to the fact that Angie is doing all the right things.

Yet this oh-so-pretty picture falls apart when merely hours after her baby boy's birth, the child unexpectedly dies from sudden infant death syndrome. It happens, the doctors explain, and nobody knows what causes it or what to do about it. It's a staggering blow to Angie, and even kind, supportive nourishment from her husband does not keep her from sinking into a sharp malaise. Her behavior becomes erratic and frightening to her friends. Indeed, her friends turn out to be the fair-weather variety, and Angie becomes isolated in her torment.

A compassionate character portrait of what can happen when tragedy unexpectedly strikes, "Everything Put Together" shows the full strains of one woman's burden and isolation. Poignantly scripted by a triumvirate of writers (Adam Forgash, Catherine Lloyd Burns, Marc Forster), it's a wrenching story of personal loss and overwhelming heartache. Much of the film's power derives from Mitchell's acutely etched performance as the grief-stricken mother, a woman who has always relied on the security of her blessed and well-ordered world. Plaudits to Louis for his compact portrayal of Angie's well-meaning husband, conveying the quiet strength of a man forced to walk on eggs.

Everything works in "Everything Put Together," a testament to the sophistication and skills of director Marc Forster. Under his guiding hand, the technical contributions are alive and vital, telling us as much about the character's suffering and strength as the story itself. In particular, Roberto Schaefer's cinematography is a masterwork of telling compositions: His framings, some askew and some straight on, point us to the fullest story dimensions and character depths.