Director: José Pedro Lopes
Year: 2017
Country: Portugal/United Arab Emirates/Russia/Spain
Alternate Titles: A Floresta das Almas Perdidas
Genre: Supernatural
Plot:
Meeting in a strange forest, a disparate couple comes to a sacred spot in the forest looking to end their lives in a location chosen for the same feat only for their troubles to start once she takes matters into her own hands and forces far more pain and suffering on him than he expected.
Review:
For the most part, this was an exceptionally engaging and enjoyable effort. A lot of this is due to the rather profound and chilling nature of the material present throughout here. Being filmed in black-and-white gives this a far more evocative and poignant feel to coincide with the subject matter, for this one is so deeply rooted in Catholic guilt that the two are blended together in absolutely stellar quantities. Given that he is here to end his life and the general air of despair that hangs over him due to this incident with his daughter, yet somehow still manages to come together in a poignant manner with his friendship with the girl, their actions in the forest where they grow closer together due to his past moves this along nicely. From the guilt he experiences over failing his family and not preventing his daughters' death to the general callousness regarded for life is allowed to come together in the way they show this being filmed as there's very few wasted shots or potential throughout here with everything intertwined throughout here.
While nowhere near as potent, the film's second half is a strikingly fun and enjoyable stalker effort that has a lot to like. With the grieving family at the center of this section and completely unaware of the actions that have taken place in the forest, this stellar home-invasion effort features some absolutely fun moments. From the initial scenes featuring them being followed home that is quite creepy, her early prowling around the house which gives this a rather eerie feel to the actual attack on the family members themselves that hold this section together, there's some rather interesting and enjoyable ideas throughout here as this is perhaps the kind of strangely arthouse take on the setup which is rather unique and gives this a different enough take on the style by itself which gives this a fun kind of appeal anyway.
Basically a two-person show, there's much to be admired here about the main characters. The main lead, Jorge Mota as Ricardo comes off in an impressive manner. Essentially there in the forest looking to end his life because of factors outside his control, the fact that he calls the cynical Carolina on her pretentious manner gives him a fiery determination that goes well with the introspection and he has a lot to like about him. Coming to the lonely Carolina, Daniela Love gives a strong performance in the first half where she's just as much bent on her life ending as he is, yet the insecurity and loneliness comes through in her quietness. The second half where she's going through her slasher film take isn't as effective so she suffers somewhat in that regard. Still, it's a blast to watch these two together and they hold themselves accordingly.
While these here work for the film, it does have a rather problematic feature about it. The film's main problem is that there's quite a differing tone present throughout here that doesn't really do this much favors. Going from the first half which is a solid and introspective take on the nature of suicidal guilt and what's going through a person's mind, this naturalistic take vanishes in the second half which just screams to belong in a different movie. It's all way too scattershot and varied in what's going on and doesn't make any sense what's going on which is a far cry from what happened previously, never offers up anything about what's going on and just makes for a baffling series of actions that don't connect at all to what happened since the entire sequence feels so different from what came previously. It's the main topic holding this one down.
Overview: **/5
Featuring a rather large and obvious problematic area that holds it down significantly, the rest of the film features enough enjoyable elements to be somewhat engaging arthouse-styled horror effort. This will be far more favorable for those that can appreciate the themes and commentary featured within here, while those not looking for that should definitely heed caution.
Comments
Post a Comment