This film is conducted with a very, very steady hand. There is nothing to complain about in terms of direction - the narrative progresses slowly, but the tension is built very efficiently. The superbly led actors do not disappoint - the characters are very well constructed and portrayed not only plausibly, but even endearingly. There is a lot of looseness and humanity in them, but also the right dose of consistency. The only thing I missed a tad was the lack of clearer character transformation arcs. In the case of Eleonor, one can, shall we say, oobserve such a transformation, but not necessarily in the case of Lemmark, and it is not there at all when it comes to Jack McKenzie, who remains throughout the story a bit of a "space filler" - as if the juxtaposition of Lemmark and Eleonor required the addition of some third element. So this element was added, Jack McKenzie is Lemmark's second mainstay next to Eleonor, but his role in the story is almost no different from the side characters, i.e. The other members of the investigative team, and yet - for unexplained reasons - the film places him higher relative to them in the hierarchy. The camera willingly and often portrays the three of them together - Lemmark, Eleonor and McKenzie are clearly fashioned as a trio. But only the first two play a significant role in the investigation.
However, the main flaw of this production - making it impossible to call the film great and defending its entry into the narrow circle of films to which one wants to return - is, unfortunately, the script. However the idea itself, the concept itself is, in my opinion, very good, its implementation in written form seems to be a bit limp. This is felt mainly in the third act, where the promises made earlier by the text should be kept. They aren't. It's also possible that the direction is limping a bit here, but nevertheless the main culprit is the script itself. Towards the end it lacks.... the spark. The finale then comes off as rather trivial - despite the fairly sensible and relatively unique concepts assumed in the very idea of the script, in its backbone. It's as if all the steam went into building the world, the characters, draping the aforementioned backbone with flesh, while the core remains described - and then realized - rather vaguely, with the omission of a believable psychology of the characters, a bit fast, perfunctory.
On the other hand, the cinematography, reminiscent of Darius Khondji's work in Se7en, deserves attention - there is a lot of dark elegance in it, and at the same time striking stylization, from which mixture we get a visual language that fits the mood of the story quite snugly. Camera works well together with dynamic but "honest" editing and the result is a very imersive, suggestive, if somewhat distorted, a bit unreal visual convention.
Overall, the entire movie is definitely noteworthy and above avarage. It lacks a little strength to break the glass ceiling and - like Se7en or the first season of True Detective - become a modern classic. But Damián Szifron's sense of style, strenght of direction are, in my opinion, at a high level, and I patiently await his next movie.
However, the main flaw of this production - making it impossible to call the film great and defending its entry into the narrow circle of films to which one wants to return - is, unfortunately, the script. However the idea itself, the concept itself is, in my opinion, very good, its implementation in written form seems to be a bit limp. This is felt mainly in the third act, where the promises made earlier by the text should be kept. They aren't. It's also possible that the direction is limping a bit here, but nevertheless the main culprit is the script itself. Towards the end it lacks.... the spark. The finale then comes off as rather trivial - despite the fairly sensible and relatively unique concepts assumed in the very idea of the script, in its backbone. It's as if all the steam went into building the world, the characters, draping the aforementioned backbone with flesh, while the core remains described - and then realized - rather vaguely, with the omission of a believable psychology of the characters, a bit fast, perfunctory.
On the other hand, the cinematography, reminiscent of Darius Khondji's work in Se7en, deserves attention - there is a lot of dark elegance in it, and at the same time striking stylization, from which mixture we get a visual language that fits the mood of the story quite snugly. Camera works well together with dynamic but "honest" editing and the result is a very imersive, suggestive, if somewhat distorted, a bit unreal visual convention.
Overall, the entire movie is definitely noteworthy and above avarage. It lacks a little strength to break the glass ceiling and - like Se7en or the first season of True Detective - become a modern classic. But Damián Szifron's sense of style, strenght of direction are, in my opinion, at a high level, and I patiently await his next movie.
Tell Your Friends