★★½☆☆
11 September 2017
A movie review of DARK RIVER. |
“Did he suffer?” Alice (Ruth Wilson)
Writer-director Clio Barnard knocked it out of the park, straight out of the gate, to combine two metaphors.THE ARBOR (2010) is that rare beast, an original piece of cinema. Sophomore feature THE SELFISH GIANT (2013) is a Ken Loachian social discourse ending on an emotional gut-punch. It was thus with great anticipation one walked into DARK RIVER. Unfortunately, it disappoints. I think of TYRANNOSAUR (2011) in comparison, Paddy Considine's excellent feature debut, and DARK RIVER pales. Both are about abuse and the aftermath. Both have a cathartic prison scene. Both climax with death. If TYRANNOSAUR is a shriek of pain, DARK RIVER is a whimper. Too much of this film is unsurprising.
Writer-director Clio Barnard knocked it out of the park, straight out of the gate, to combine two metaphors.THE ARBOR (2010) is that rare beast, an original piece of cinema. Sophomore feature THE SELFISH GIANT (2013) is a Ken Loachian social discourse ending on an emotional gut-punch. It was thus with great anticipation one walked into DARK RIVER. Unfortunately, it disappoints. I think of TYRANNOSAUR (2011) in comparison, Paddy Considine's excellent feature debut, and DARK RIVER pales. Both are about abuse and the aftermath. Both have a cathartic prison scene. Both climax with death. If TYRANNOSAUR is a shriek of pain, DARK RIVER is a whimper. Too much of this film is unsurprising.
Opening on Alice Bell (Ruth Wilson) shearing sheep among her male colleagues. Not an eye is batted at her presence (and rightly so of course). It becomes clear she is adroit at farming and a hard worker. Standing there, with wool in hand, is in sharp contrast to her star making turn as a charismatic psychopath, playing another Alice, in TV show LUTHER. A colleague, Pete (Jonah Russell), states, “There’ll always be a place for you here.” Showing her professional worth, as well as the doe-eyed attraction to her. Alice recoils at the latter. She is due to return home after 15 years, on news of the death of her father.
Packing her things, there is a hallucination of a man, Richard (Sean Bean). Causing Alice distress, this sets off audience alarm bells. Is this her father? Was she away because of incest and rape? Turns out those are correct assumptions. Are the accurate guesses down to the cleverness of the filmmaking, or the predictability of the narrative? One wanted to give talented storyteller Barnard the benefit of the doubt; but that the conversational revelation is held back to the end, means one cannot. When Alice finally releases her trauma out loud in verbal form, it is unnecessary. The discourse does not add to what we have already surmised. We are just waiting for the release, but it comes too late and too simply.
Like 2016’s THE LEVELLING, DARK RIVER is also about a prodigal daughter returning to a farm after a family member passes. The ugliness of human nature is shown undermining the beauty of the U.K. countryside. While the former is an occasional commentary on British agriculture, DARK RIVER largely eschews politics and focuses on character. Alice’s brother Joe (Mark Stanley) has let their Yorkshire sheep farm go to seed, and she is determined to take over the tenancy. Why return to the scene of the crime? Does Alice hope to write over the past with new memories? Does she think re-living the misery at the venue will provide relief? The answers are not provided. Maybe she does not know them herself.
What elevates DARK RIVER is the portrayal of how difficult it is to articulate family mistreatment. Anger, resentment and shame can tie the tongue. Alice looks to be suffering from post-traumatic stress.
There was no need for an overly dramatic culmination. It does not sit right with the taciturn atmosphere. Less is often more. The conclusion is a bit of a mess. And the last scene was a mistake. Why do upsetting movies often feel the need to rewind time and end on a happier moment? Such a grace note rings false, and undermines what has preceded.
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