Tuesday, December 12, 2006

Dream dream, filling up an idle hour

Call me a philistine, but the art horror film Don't Look Now really didn't do much for me. As such, I shan't rend my clothing and beat my breast over the 2007 remake. This reviewer from a NZ film site, with whom I normally agree, calls it an intellectual puzzle. I suppose so. It definately is an imagery bomb with all that water, fractured glass and red. Our man Donald Sutherland, a medieval church restorer, has the gift of second sight, but will not recognize it. As you can guess, this bodes poorly for him. After his daughter drowns, he and his wife go off to Venice, perhaps chosen so that the director can bombard you with water imagery. They then encounter some strange British women who may or may not be trying to help the couple.

There is some disturbing stuff in the movie, but nothing really creepy. I think Venice is used well, although mostly to signify or to create mood. Perhaps this is cultural, but I also thought that the people generally acted strangely. This may have been on purpose to show that Sutherland is in a waking nightmare, but for me the effect was just puzzlement.

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