Vinyan - Verirrte Seelen

"Vinyan" is the type of movie that just doesn't sit well with everyone or has a certain appeal to just anyone in the audience. I had expectations to this movie, because from what I read on the DVD cover, then I was intrigued.

And then I watched the movie, and that expectation dissipated like mist before the rising morning sun. This movie wasn't anything at all what I had expected it to be.

What works well enough in "Vinyan" is the atmosphere and the building up of suspense. However, it is not really given enough room to bloom into something great, because it is weighed down by the horrible slow pace the movie trots forward in. Plus, the characters in the movie were not really characters with dimensions and personalities that you cared about; they came off a shallow and lifeless drones that were just milling about at the whim of the director.

Visually, then there is a lot of great scenes, especially in the jungle, that are impressive.

However, entertainment-wise, then "Vinyan" fails to fully deliver, at least for my account. I suppose I wasn't in that particular target audience that would find such a movie enjoyable.

The great mistake in Vinyan is to have tried to sell it as a classical horror movie from Hollywood, like The Ruines or The Grudge.

Don't expect any cheap thrills or funny Fx, it's a deep drama about an occidental woman in Asia, falling into madness after the loss of her child, with a post-tsunami background.

I can understand why some people are so disappointed, the subject is disturbing and unusual : how can you accept the loss of your child without a clear evidence of his death, and how can you express your own pain in a devastated country where most people are going through intense sufferings, violence and poverty ?

Even if Vinyan is not perfect, i really liked the very dark atmosphere that stay with you long after the end of the film. I'm not a huge fan of Emmanuelle Béart but I think she is quite convincing in this role, far from her usual characters.

As Belgian compatriot, and a big fan of his more than promising debut feature (the genuinely eerie backwoods-oddity "Calvaire"), I pledged I would follow the work of writer/director Fabrice Du Welz regardless of what he would do next. I already broke that promise with his next film "Vinyan", though, and even now - more than 12 years since its release - I was still reluctant to see it. It all has to do with the plot, and the simple fact it doesn't seem like anything I want to see processed into a thriller/horror film. Released only a few years after the devastating tsunami in Asia, "Vinyan" revolves around a couple who lost their son in the wave and remind behind soulless and heartbroken. When, at a fundraising event, the mother think she sees footage of her missing son Joshua, she persuades her doubting husband to spend a fortune on heading deep into the Burmese jungle; -on a dangerous mission with unreliable guides and without any tangible evidence their son really is still alive.

I read comparisons between "Vinyan" and major milestones such as "Apocalypse Now" and "The Deer Hunter". Because of the jungle setting, obviously, but also because Du Welz' script essentially revolves about the physical and emotional exhaustion, obsession, and the irreversible descent into madness. It's an extremely unpleasant film, thriving on a thoroughly gloomy atmosphere and the intense performances of both Emmanuelle Béart and Rufus Sewell, and the screenplay never gives you the slightest hope of a happy ending. The title allegedly means "angry spirits", and in the third act of the film these spirits are personified in a sort of hellish version of "Lord of the Flies".

In spite of a powerful and authentically dramatic first hour, it honestly feels as if Du Welz lost control over his own script and film throughout the entire third act. "Vinyan" becomes dull, repetitive, and frustrating when it should be getting more tense and building up to its climax. By this time, the comparisons with "Apocalypse Now" have long become irrelevant, and only the incredibly devoted Béart still makes an effort to drag the film over the finish line with her stupendous performance.

In Phuket Island, Thailand, the architect Paul Bellmer (Rufus Sewell) and his wife Jeanne (Emmanuelle Béart) lost their son Joshua in a tsunami six months ago. Jeanne is disturbed and has not accepted the loss of her beloved son. While watching some footages from Myanmar (former Burma), Jeanne is convinced that a boy wearing a Manchester United shirt in a poor village is Joshua, and Paul accepts to seek out their son in the sea gypsies camp. They hire the trafficker Thaksin Gao (Petch Osathanugrah) and they travel in the boat of master Sonchai (Amporn Pankratok) to search Joshua. After a series of weird incidents, Sonchai leaves the trio in an abandoned village. They have to walk through the jungle where they face a journey to hell.

"Vinyan" is a disturbing journey to insanity visibly inspired in "Apocalypse Now" and with the same style of "Antichrist". The slow paced plot is supported by a good screenplay, stylish cinematography that keeps the environment of a nightmare and another outstanding performance of Emmanuelle Béart. I agree that this type of movie is not for everyone, but those that like original psychological horror stories without gore, explosions and special effects, will certainly enjoy "Vinyan". My vote is eight.

Title (Brazil): "Espíritos Condenados" ("Doomed Spirits")

If you like Green Inferno, Death of Me any tropical messed up horror flicks this is good to watch well messed up. Point is if you lost your kid and it's been 6months don't go to the jungle thinking they are there.