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The Tracey Fragments

A torturously stylized melodrama
By PETER KEOUGH  |  June 25, 2008
1.5 1.5 Stars
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Fans of Juno will rejoice to learn that Ellen Page has starred in other precious, pretentious, pseudo-hip quirky movies. As the title character in Bruce McDonald’s torturously stylized melodrama, she’s younger and less wise-ass than in her recent Oscar-nominated role, but thanks to the fragmentation, she’s at least as annoying. McDonald infests the screen with multi-frames that at best hurt the eyes and underscore the obvious. But the onslaught doesn’t hide the tale’s triteness. A 15-year-old misfit, bullied at school by big-busted blonde classmates as “the titless wonder” and misunderstood at home by her feckless, clichéd parents, Tracey runs away to seek her cretinous younger brother, who has wandered off while she was supposed to be minding him. She ends up on a city bus wearing a shower curtain. Why? By the time she’s related her analogy about the dead girl in the ditch sprouting flowers for the bees, only the hardcore will care. 77 minutes | Brattle: June 27–July 3

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