User reviews

A young man is accused of assault and arrested. He swears that he is innocent, but the fact that an old woman is the one he supposedly beat doesn't make him look good in a anyones eyes. Thus he winds up in jail and is given advice to ask to be jailed with a particular group of prisoners, the career criminals. Frightened to death, ridiculed, and generally looked down upon at first we see the young man change according to the prison's unwritten rules.

This makes for an interesting look at not just prison life, but life in general. There are rules on both sides of the prison walls, and we simply must choose to follow or not to follow them and then face the consequences. For example the prison cell has no door on the bathroom compartment so when going to the bathroom one must announce it to the others and for the time being no one is aloud to eat. A strange rule, but followed with discipline and one is punishable if he breaks it. As the young man learns the ins and outs of prison life he gains respect inside and notoriety on the outside and then we see just what this 'symmetry' in life is and what results, for better or worse on both sides of the prison wall, it can yield. 8/10

No rating, but contains profanity

An innocent man goes to jail being charged for beating some old woman (with deathly result). He's got no alibi and the only witness of the incident recognize him and die few days later (very old woman). Now he's trying to live in the new environment.

Will it change him? How can he handle that? What side of prisoners he'll choose (git-men or mug)?

You must see it yourself.

In my opinion: That movie shows polish prison in excellent way. And the young actor should get a medal for playing. You'll got few minutes for thinking 'bout your innocence.

There was a time when Polish cinema ranked among the best of the world. Those days, inevitably and indubitably, are over. "Symetria" is a perfect example of why - a failure of a film, a dismal, boring, drawn-out, sentimental mess.

"Symetria" or "Symmetry" for those who haven't yet caught on, tells the story of a man who ends up in prison, entirely without reason, assuring us continuously of his innocence and ends up being corrupted by the system. In a word, true - this happens often, I do not doubt. In a world outside of society, people begin living by their own rules very much a la "Lord of the Flies." But what "Symetria" does is not explore this theme with a new angle, try to shed light on it or even portray the theme realistically. What it does is *attempt* to be art rather than actually *be* art. In other words, it becomes a grotesque, vulgar bore-show of long takes and clichéd dialogue and trivialized psychological analysis. The shift in personality that occurs in the main character I simply do not buy - especially when he turns on a man whom he has consistently, without fail treated as a friend (until this particular moment that I don't want to reveal.) This film is an insult to the intelligence of anyone who takes cinema seriously. It's tragic too because "Symetria" opens with a lot of potential, but it goes through the motions of a story and believable character development rather than actually accomplish these things. At the end of it I felt cheated, empty, unsatisfied - even dissatisfied. It's been a while since I've seen a dramatic film, that takes itself seriously, strewn together from parts of films and books far greater than itself - all to amount to a jumbled mess.

I won't get into specifics, but my main problem is with the corruption of the main character. It doesn't happen realistically, believably and a step at a time. It seems like he's a nice, shy, isolated guy at first and then suddenly, he turns into a prison-life-savvy vigilante. In fact, the film actually seems to imply what it tries to be dead set against: namely that jails, however horrid, actually instill a sense of morality and responsibility in an individual that is far beyond what people outside of jail can comprehend. Jail is good - the tough, who survive, are tough enough to take morality into their own hands and do it justly. Or so the film seems to imply through its final scenes - I don't want to spoil the fun for whoever wants to watch "Symetria" by revealing them.

Needless to say, this is a below-average film and I think I disliked it so much because it pretends to be about so much, while being about nothing, or failing to be about anything well. In that respect it's pretentious, self-involved, simplistic and forced.