'The Tracey Fragments': Angst in a thousand shards

Ellen Page comes through with a performance despite distracting directorial stylings.

from the May 9, 2008 edition

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Ellen Page plays Tracey Berkowitz, a distraught waif who rides in the back of buses and refers to herself as "just a normal girl who hates herself." This angsty Canadian movie directed by Bruce McDonald takes its title all too literally: Every sequence is splintered into multiple split screens, which means that you can follow the dreary, semi-incomprehensible action from many viewpoints at once. It's all a bit like "Girl Interrupted" shattered into a thousand shards, but Page somehow manages to come through with a performance despite the director's distracting technique and lines like "How do I know what's real and what's not when the whole world is inside my head?" Grade: C- (Unrated.)