Movie Review #3

Retreat Review

Martin (Cillian Murphy) and Kate (Thandie Newton) are a couple who in the aftermath of the loss of their unborn child are struggling to deal with the cruel hand that fate has dealt them. At Martin’s insistence they return to Fairweather Cottage, the sole habitation on the remote and unpopulated Blackholme Island off the West Coast of Scotland in a misguided effort to heal the growing divide between them. Into their lives comes Jack (Jamie Bell) an injured soldier who claims to have washed up on the beach after his boat ran aground on some rocks. Further to that Jack claims that a lethal virus that attacks the respiratory system of it’s victims has reached pandemic proportions and soon they find themselves, at his urging, turning the cottage into a makeshift safe zone in an effort to protect themselves from the fatal airborne disease. But there’s something not right about Jack. He has secrets and he’s not the only one.

Jamie Bell is an interesting young actor. After Billy Elliot he could have fallen with ease into the usual traps that await successful child actors. Instead he was soon to be seen turning in a fantastic performance in the under appreciated Dear Wendy by the Danish director of the quite brilliant Festen (The Celebration). Soon after in Scottish auteur David MacKenzie’s fourth feature Hallam Foe he delivered one hundred and ten percent on the promise he displayed in Dear Wendy as the deeply disturbed eponymous “hero” caught in that movie’s dark psycho-sexual whirlpool. Likewise Cillian Murphy is another impressive young actor. I’ve enjoyed him in pretty much everything I've seen him in but he was especially impressive in Danny Boyle’s 28 Days Later; a movie with which Retreat shares some superficial similarities. Thandie Newton I'm less familiar with but she’s an impressive and, when the stakes get high, feisty presence in Retreat.

The performances are of particular importance because a movie like this, essentially a chamber piece that would work just as well on stage, could be fatally mediocre without talented actors to anchor the movie and stop it from drifting off into tedium, or worse, melodrama. Before watching this movie, knowing what the premise was and noting the talent of the actors it employed I was curious as to exactly why it didn’t hit the cinemas in the UK. After watching it I sort of understand.

Which isn’t to suggest that Retreat is a bad movie. It’s actually an above average thriller and I've seen far worse genre offerings get the big screen hard sell. But in it’s lack of scale and the way it focuses on the performances to the exclusion of much in the way of action I can understand why a studio would be reluctant to invest money on something that would likely fail to find a wide audience regardless of the quality of the talent on display.

So what does that leave us with? Why is Retreat worth seeking out on DVD? It’s simple really. It’s a cracking little mystery/thriller that successfully harnesses the mounting paranoia and growing mistrust of the central characters and from those two elements plus a trio of sterling performances forges something that exemplifies a type of movie that I really enjoy . What we have here is a straight to DVD gem that is truly worth discovering. Especially to witness another magnificent, complex performance courtesy of Jamie Bell. He really throws himself into this role. Moreso than the movie, entertaining though it is, deserves. Here he gives a performance that, while being very different in nature, is nonetheless just as startling as the one he gave in Hallam Foe.

The movie starts off as a dysfunctional relationship drama but once Jack appears on the scene with his possibly disingenuous revelations it instantly becomes a more interesting affair. If I'm entirely honest the movie isn’t without it’s longeurs but at just shy of ninety minutes it doesn’t outstay it’s welcome and compared to most straight to DVD thrillers the suspense and tension is well handled by director Carl Tibbetts. This is his debut and although it isn’t a masterpiece there’s enough here that works to suggest he has some real potential.

He skillfully uses the claustrophobic confines of the cottage where the majority of the movie is set to great effect. These people are stuck there with each other in much the same way that the the characters were on a boat in Dead Calm. Like that movie we have a couple who go somewhere remote in an effort to forget about a traumatic event. Throw into the mix a stranger who may or may not be more than a little bit unhinged and we have the perfect ingredients for a tasty little thriller.

And that’s exactly what Retreat is. A tasty little thriller. Not a masterpiece. Not in any way original. Certainly not the equal of it’s influences (Straw Dogs, 28 Days Later, Knife in the Water to name a few). But next time you’re down the local DVD Rental store I would urge you to skip the latest big screen failure and instead check out this little straight to DVD gem. You’ll thank me for it.

7 out of 10

Movie Review #2

Lake Mungo (2008)

Sixteen year old Alice Palmer (Talia Zucker) drowns at a local dam and a week later her body is retrieved and identified by her father, Russell (David Pledger). This tragic event sets in motion a chain reaction of alarming incidents that will have a profound effect on her family as they find themselves embroiled in a series off ghostly disturbances. Harrowing secrets are uncovered along the way as they deal with their bereavement and discover some disturbing truths about their daughter.

Lake Mungo presents the viewer with plenty of supernatural shenanigans and, as a result, rates pretty high on the chill-o-meter. However, it is as much a movie about a family finding their individual ways to deal with grief and learning how to move on. That is what elevates this above what is fast becoming an oversaturated subgenre of horror. Admittedly there’s nothing here that hasn’t been done before. But the devil, as they say, is in the detail and the upshot of this is a damn fine addition to this overcrowded sub-genre. As a result this is required viewing for anyone who enjoyed The Blair Witch Project, Paranormal Activity etc. In fact, in a lot of ways this is a superior example of the form.

What we have here is a moderately successful attempt to create a hybrid of the fake documentary genre and the found footage movie. The performances from all involved are believable throughout and if the viewer is willing to give himself over to the possibility of this being an actual documentary, detailing a real ordeal, it wouldn’t take too much effort to do so. There are several disparate elements that are expertly knitted together to make this as convincing as possible. News reports and clippings; talking head interviews; amateur footage taken from a number of different sources. The film makers corral all of these elements and more and the end result is never less than utterly believable. This looks every bit the TV documentary it sets out to convince the viewer it is.

The most important factor in any fake documentary is that the performances during the talking head sequences must be convincing. Without that, and regardless of how effective the rest of the movie might be, the entire project is doomed to failure. More than anything else Lake Mungo gets this element right with a selection of subtle performances that crucially don’t feel like those involved are acting. These people feel real and it is this, not the moments of video footage showing “evidence” of a supernatural presence scattered throughout the runtime, which makes this movie work. Special credit must be given to Rosie Traynor and Martin Sharpe as the mother and son of the family. They both have to do most of the heavy lifting here and both are outstanding throughout.

The movie isn’t perfect. There are quite a few moments that stretch credibility somewhat. Mostly these revolve around things that are discovered in some of the amateur video footage that simply are not clear enough for those viewing the materials to be as certain of what they saw as they actually are. That said, most of the time the video footage is extremely effective and the images of “ghosts” succeeded in sending a chill up my spine. The make-up effects used to depict Alice’s corpse were particularly impressive.

Lake Mungo must have created at least a minor stir and as a result it has somewhat predictably caught the attention of the makers of The Ring remake. I can’t think of much they could do to improve on what already exists but I can, through experience, think of a lot they could do to royally screw it up. It is further evidence of the lack of imagination in Hollywood today. Why come up with ideas yourself when you can buy them and feed them into the remake machine?

Overall I was really impressed by Lake Mungo. It has a subtle way with its chills that hearkens back to the works of literary greats such as M. R. James and Ambrose Bierce. Although I did find things to enjoy in the first two Paranormal Activity movies (the second movie less so than the first) the subtle approach employed here is far more enjoyable and in truth it’s also more difficult to pull off. Lake Mungo could have chosen a more clamorous approach to scare its audience. The film makers should be congratulated for their restraint. It mostly pays off and as a result I highly recommend that fans of a good ghost story check this out.

7 out of 10