Maelström

There are opening scenes to movies, and then there's Maelstrom! Easily one of the most memorable and daring intro's I've seen in recent memory. I was humming that tune for days! The tale is simple, easy to follow, but I won't give it away - the unusual coincidences and twists in this film should be experienced fresh. However, the course of the story brings the viewer various emotions; frustration and disdain at a young woman engaging in questionable activities (not to mention the crime that she goes relatively unpunished for), humour in foreign situations (a heavy car, fisherman versions of justice), and finally happiness (but I won't say how). Oh, yeah, and it's narrated by a fish! Several fishes, I should say. Which gives the film a quirkiness that's refreshing, given the sometimes dark and depressing subject matter. <you twinkle above us, we twinkle below.......>

I went to see the movie because it got excellent reviews from the local newspapers and websites here in Vancouver. I'd seen "Possible Worlds" a few weekends before, and it was truly an excellent movie, no cliches... silence used to build up angst and suspense....

Maelstrom was nothing like it. It was a cross between a bad French comedy and a pretentious artsy movie. Trying to rid the plot from cliches and predictability, it was filled with the most absurd of situations. True, it was sometimes funny, and sometimes powerful - but it just seemed like a bunch of references scattered on screen, with music, imagery and pause used not to built the story, but to shock through being "unexpected" and "French artsy".

But it was worth seeing. French-Canadian movies have a feeling of Nordic melancholy that can turn to the good or the bad. Mostly they turn to the good. and some turn nowhere. Like Maelstrom.

I left the theater with a true smile "hooked" on my face. Here is a tale as grave and dark, and yet as lovely, as Grimm's original plots used to be, with however, a very personal imagery and contemporary twist. Fishes being cut in pieces by a fisherman tell this story about a young upper class women's life going from bad to worse. An neutral, almost "silent" camera shows very clean and beautiful takes of desperation and emptiness. Then, as the story turns, with odds only reality itself could invent, witty dialogs and situations light up the tale into a true bliss. The ageless fishes presents it all in a very solemn manner, conterbalancing wonderfully with the superficial and aimless modern world in which the characters live. The whole movie is thoughtful, questioning to the viewer and articulate in its very own way.

"Maelström" heralds the arrival of a major directorial talent. Denis Villeneuve, who not only directed but also wrote the screenplay, displays a very high level of cinematic maturity. The film itself does not lead to any profound ending but rather peels off layer by layer. It's often unpredictable and at times hilarious. One thing to note is the astonishing camera and lighting work done by young cinematographer André Turpin. If this was a Hollywood production shot by a veteren Cameraman it would scream 'Oscar!, Oscar!' but alas.. Maelström was produced in a country that provides incentives to foreign productions yet does so little in encouraging and supporting homegrown talent.

I was rather excited to watch this film, and the first hour or so did not disappoint. It reminded me a lot of Kieslowski's Blue, and also a little bit of Red, in the character interaction, the cinematography, the use of colors, and just the overall mood. However, I thought that the last half went downhill. It suddenly switched from a journey into depression and internal conflicts to a cliched, improbable love story, almost as if the ending had been tacked on. The emotions of the main characters in the end shift too dramatically, and it seems as though no healing or reconciliation takes place (although apparently some does). The very ending, with the last words of the fish were too out of context, and I swear that they were borrowed directly from some other source. Perhaps my least favorite part of the entire movie comes at the ending on the boat, only because the song being played does not fit the mood at all, and changed my outlook entirely. All in all though, a feature worth watching, if only for the first half alone.