One of this movies you watch and getting excited about but then disappoints you after all.Actually i couldn't find the story. Neither her relation to her husband, nor her relation the her sister or parents. I get that she is struggling with life. But the why isn't really told at all. For a movie which is totally about its main character, you get pretty much no insight in her character. All things she does are making some sense. but for me it is the task of the movie to explain it to me. to let me understand the character and her feelings. And this is done poorly. Actually the movie kinda got me when she was planing everything. giving her children away, the strange black car at the start[..]. So at least, i thought, she had a plan. And especially the movie made it look like she had a plan. But in the end: No, no plan. Shes not running away traveling the world or is becoming a sex slave (wich i thought at some point). She just drives to nowhere chased by a police car appearing like in a classical action movie (totally stupid and with no reason). If this is a metaphor for her getting nowhere in life, If this should be the whole point of this movie, showing that she cant run away and cant get nowhere, i will instantly take 3 stars off my rating and never watch movies again.Also 50% of the screen time you see her having sex with her husband. Yeah OK i get that she had great sex and a lot. but really it felt like the whole point in this movie was showing them "making love". Anyway, i like the style and display of sexuality in this movie. Its just too much and always the same shot and after the 3 or 4th time nobody can tell me that it has any value to the plot anymore.6 points because her performance is great and for nice shots and colours. But i wouldn't recommend it to anyone.

Lacking in substance.Told through a series of flashbacks, and odd cuts, this movie is about a woman who suddenly just drives out down the highway, seemingly running away from something. We see her relationship with her husband - how they met, fell in love, had kids and the trials and tribulations of their marriage. We also see the woman's relationship with her parents (and the issues they bring) and with her sister.Surely enough of a kernel around which to fashion an emotional and interesting story. Unfortunately, there isn't much more to the story. There's really not much meat on the bones here. Important details are missing, things just seem to happen for no rhyme or reason, some details are provided about characters but then these details ultimately, have no bearing on the story, themes and sub- plots are introduced but are ultimately very underdeveloped or are purely red herrings. All this while told through random, not- necessarily-in-chronological-order flashbacks.It is rare that a movie feels over-edited, but this a definite case of that. The movie should have been at least 30 minutes longer, which would have been easily doable and watchable - the finished product is only 83 minutes long!Disappointing.

Saw this at the Rotterdam film festival 2015 (IFFR). Very well acted and shot overall, but the fragmentation and the continuous back- and forward-flashes deteriorate this movie. There were some compensations, however, for example Maria's impressive monologue in the support group, where she declared her life "ridiculous" in spite of all the things in her favor (healthy children, loving husband, etc). Her monologue explains what this movie is all about. For that reason it would have been much better when this scene had been moved to very early.Also, the opening scene where someone drives through the dark woods while a radio reporter talks about woods deliberately set on fire, did not provide for any clues how it connected to the story at hand, and neither did subsequent scenes enlighten us in any way. Worse, we had to wait until the end for an explanation how this related to everything else. We get a few pieces of information that Maria is involved in an evil plan, being promised large sums of money before and after the "action", yet it all dangles in the air without becoming clear until the very end. This is far too late to make an enjoyable story which involves us in the protagonists and their motives.Finally, also caused by a badly sequenced screenplay, is my opinion that the family relations that are the underlying cause of all the troubles, are not introduced properly, or their introductions are too late and too little. We can only reconstruct the true drama in hindsight, but I don't feel any inclination to see this movie twice. Maybe I'm old-fashioned and relying too much on a logical narrative. It's a pity, as all elements were present, but the order could be much better to include the viewer in the process.

A Blast makes its point clear from the opening scene. Everyone deserves the right to freedom, choice and happiness. In the face of national crisis, in this case Greece, not everyone gets those rights, and its people goes down with the ship. There is truth in its biting cynicism and just like its title, it promises a turbulent ride. Unfortunately it suffers from an unnecessarily shuffled structure. The main timeline is confusing, but presumed the day that Maria fulfils the fantasy of someone who's in trouble and manages to run away from her family, country and problems.The rest of it flashes to when she first meets her husband (who she has to endure a long distance relationship with) to when its revealed that her mother hasn't paid taxes for her business and their family has to pay the price. Too often does the film appear to cut to a flashback for no good reason and the film feels muddled for it. Granted, it does conjure the stressed emotions it wants and show the stages of life, but it's plagued by scenes of contrivances and lapses of irrationality. It's bolstered by strong performances, particularly from its leading lady Angeliki Papoulia coupled with great intimate but wide cinematography. A Blast does what it says on the tin to convey the damage of financial crisis but at the cost of severe untidiness.7/10Read more @ The Awards Circuit (http://www.awardscircuit.com/)